poisons

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of poison.

   Certain plant poisons have been used in traditional medicine at tiny doses.

   Investigators tested the body for several common household poisons.

   Note

   A plural that counts kinds rather than amounts. Used as a mass noun, poison has no plural (there was poison in the cup), so poisons usually means different substances: plant poisons, household poisons. Chemists use it the same way for substances that stop a catalyst working. The drinker's idiom stays singular: you ask "what's your poison?", never "what are your poisons?"

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of poison.

   Lead from old pipes slowly poisons anyone who drinks the water.

   Resentment poisons every conversation between the two brothers.

   Note

   The present-tense form that almost always takes a direct object: something poisons someone or something. Its objects range widely. They include a person, a water supply, a mood or a mind (she poisons him against his family). In computing, the object can be a cache, when an attacker feeds it false data. The against construction marks the sense of turning someone hostile.

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