chemical weapon

noun

: a weapon (such as mustard gas or sarin) used in chemical warfare

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

Phosgene is hazardous at very low levels, noted Schettler, and has been used as a chemical weapon in war. —Jill Neimark, STAT, 21 Feb. 2023

Of those, the vinyl chloride gas that caught fire could break down into compounds including hydrogen chloride and phosgene, a chemical weapon used during World War I as a choking agent, according to the EPA and the CDC. —Aya Elamroussi, CNN, 17 Feb. 2023

Many troops were exposed to a class of chemicals called organophosphates, which include everything from pesticides to sarin gas, a chemical weapon. —Florence Williams, Discover Magazine, 30 July 2014

Hot chillies owe their mouth-watering bite to substances call capsaicinoids – a unique breed of chemical weapon wielded only by these plants. —Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 20 Dec. 2011

For every airplane, computer or chemical weapon appearing in our archives, there are a ton of other inventions that are, to put it bluntly, rather pointless. —Jennifer Welsh, Discover Magazine, 11 Mar. 2011

That’s because the bombardier beetle is a walking chemical weapon. —Carl Engelking, Discover Magazine, 6 Feb. 2018

In August 2020, my father survived a chemical weapon poisoning with Novichok performed by FSB officers and, several months after recovering, successfully investigated his own assassination attempt. —Dasha Navalnaya, Time, 6 Dec. 2022

The United States limited the export of fentanyl to Russia and Belarus, warning it could be used as a chemical weapon to support the invasion. —María Luisa Paúl, Washington Post, 16 Sep. 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

1920, in the meaning defined above