venom
nounverbadjectivecommon in dialogue
- //ˈvɛnəm//
An animal toxin intended for defensive or offensive use; a biological poison delivered by bite, sting, etc., to protect an animal or to kill its prey.
noun
- 1
An animal toxin intended for defensive or offensive use; a biological poison delivered by bite, sting, etc., to protect an animal or to kill its prey.
[…] There may be in the cup / A spider steep’d, and one may drink, depart, / And yet partake no venom, for his knowledge / Is not infected...
And from the Boughs brush off the evil dew, / And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blew, / Or what the cross dire-looking Planet smites, / Or hurtfull Worm with canker’d venom bites […]
I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom.
The serious artist […] [is] obsessed by his material; it’s like a venom working in his blood and the art is the antidote.
- 2
figurativeFeeling or speech marked by spite or malice; vitriol.
The venom of such looks, we fairly hope, / Have lost their quality, and that this day / Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love.
[…] as I was feasting my jaundiced eye one morning with a certain newspaper, which I was in the habit of employing as the vehicle of my venom, I was startled at discovering myself conspicuously pointed out in an angry column as a cowardly defamer […]
My daughter […] has no occasion to dispute the identity of your person; the venom of your present language is sufficient to remind her that she speaks with the mortal enemy of her father.
History is a study which has none of the venom of reality in it.
Etymology
From Middle English venym, from Old French venim, from Vulgar Latin *venīmen, from Early Medieval Latin venīnum, from Classical Latin venēnum (“drug; poison; a charm”), ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to love”). Doublet of venin and venene.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo infect with venom; to envenom; to poison.
1566, Thomas Blundeville (translator and editor), The Fower Chiefyst Offices Belongyng to Horsemanshippe, London, Chapter 36, […] washe all the filth away with warme water, and annoynte the place with Hony and Fytch flower myngled together. But beware you touche none of the kirnelles with your bare finger, for feare of venoming the place, which is very apt for a Fistula to breede in.
Let’s leave the hermit pity with our mothers, / And when we have our armours buckled on, / The venom’d vengeance ride upon our swords, / Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth.
The Dragon is a venemous beast, and poisoneth all where he lieth; he beats the Earth bare, and venoms it, that it will bear no grass […]
Our Fountains too a dire Infection yield, For Crowds of Vipers creep along the Field, And with polluted Gore, and baneful Steams, Taint all the Lakes, and venom all the Streams.
adjective
- 1
obsoletePoisonous, poisoned; (figuratively) pernicious.
Why should the worm intrude the maiden bud? / Or hateful cuckoos hatch in sparrows’ nests? / Or toads infect fair founts with venom mud?
[…] it is stopp’d with other flattering sounds, / As praises, of whose taste the wise are fond, / Lascivious metres, to whose venom sound / The open ear of youth doth always listen;
Forms
- plural
- venoms
- past tense
- venomed
- past participle
- venomed
- present participle
- venoming
- third person singular
- venoms
venom · An animal toxin intended for defensive or offensive use; a biological poison delivered by bite, sting, etc., to protect an animal or to kill its prey.
vent · An opening through which gases, especially air, can pass.Vent · A surname from Dutch.ventilation · The replacement of stale or noxious air with fresh.