theriac
Americannoun
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molasses; treacle.
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a paste formerly used as an antidote to poison, especially snake venom, made from 60 or 70 different drugs pulverized and mixed with honey.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of theriac
before 1000; < Latin thēriaca antidote to poison < Greek thēriakḗ, feminine of thēriakós, equivalent to thērí ( on ) wild beast + -akos -ac; replacing Middle English tiriake, Old English tȳriaca < Medieval Latin, variant of thēriaca
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In the second period of the distemper, the same drinks were continued, adding thereto some theriac or Jesuit's bark, in order to lessen the frequency of the diarrhœtic evacuations.
From On the cattle plague: or, Contagious typhus in horned cattle. Its history, origin, description, and treatment by Bourguignon, Honor?
He travelled through Thrace and Macedonia on foot, met the imperial personages, and prepared for them a medicine, for which he seems to have been famous, and which is spoken of as the theriac.
From Fathers of Biology by McRae, Charles
The doctors found that the Morholt had thrust into him a poisoned barb, and as their potions and their theriac could never heal him they left him in God’s hands.
From The Romance of Tristan and Iseult by Belloc, Hilaire
The fearful suffering and violent convulsions which followed only subsided at the expiration of five or six hours, and at last, the theriac which was administered to him after the bite, effected a cure.
From Celebrated Travels and Travellers Part 2. The Great Navigators of the Eighteenth Century by Benett, Léon
Being, however, provided with theriac and other antidotes against the poison, Alvaro and all his men recovered from their wounds.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
