deleterious

del·e·te·ri·ous

adj \ˌde-lə-ˈtir-ē-əs\

Definition of DELETERIOUS

: harmful often in a subtle or unexpected way <deleterious effects> <deleterious to health>

— del·e·te·ri·ous·ly adverb

— del·e·te·ri·ous·ness noun

Examples of DELETERIOUS

1. The chemical is deleterious to the environment.
2. The drug has no deleterious effects on patients.
3. In developing countries, the imposition of boundaries around national parks and protected areas has been deleterious for both people and wildlife. —Kristin B. Gunther, Association of American Geographers, 2002
4. Most everyone now knows the action of pressing mouse keys is far more deleterious to the tender structures of the wrist and hand than typing is. —Michael Finley, Albany (New York) Times-Union, 2 Sept. 1998
5. This skewed allocation of resources away from those most in need, in turn, insures that many young people from low-income families will continue to be shut out of the economy, with obvious deleterious family and social consequences. —Iris C. Rotberg, Education Week, 9 Mar. 1994
6. For as James Keirans pointed out to me, ticks are the world's most notorious carriers of the agents of diseases that strike animals, wild and domestic. And they rank second only to mosquitoes in their deleterious effect on humans. —Edwards Park, Smithsonian, January 1987

Origin of DELETERIOUS

Greek dēlētērios, from dēleisthai to hurt

First Known Use: 1643

Related to DELETERIOUS

Synonyms: adverse, bad, baleful, baneful, damaging, dangerous, harmful, detrimental, evil, hurtful, ill, injurious, mischievous, nocuous, noxious, pernicious, prejudicial, wicked

Antonyms: anodyne, benign, harmless, hurtless, innocent, innocuous, inoffensive, safe

Related Words: hostile, inimical, unfriendly; contagious, deadly, infectious, infective, pestiferous, pestilent, pestilential, poisonous, venomous; insidious, menacing, ominous, sinister, threatening; hazardous, imperiling (or imperilling), jeopardizing, parlous, perilous, risky, unsafe, unsound; nasty, noisome, unhealthful, unhealthy, unwholesome; destructive, fatal, killer, lethal, malignant, ruinous

Near Antonyms: advantageous, beneficial, useful; favorable, good, propitious; curative, healthful, healthy, helpful, palliative, remedial, salubrious, salutary, wholesome; secure, sound; benignant; noncorrosive, nondestructive, nonfatal, noninfectious, nonlethal, nonpoisonous, nonpolluting, nontoxic, nonvenomous

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See Synonym Discussion at pernicious