drug test

noun

plural drug tests

1

: a test that examines a bodily specimen (as of urine, saliva, blood, or hair) for the presence of one or more usually illegal or banned substances (such as cocaine, methamphetamine, alcohol, or anabolic steroids)

a positive drug test

He was brandishing a shot-gun, and a drug test after his arrest revealed traces of PCP.

—Alan Light

When an athlete has been using EPO and faces a drug test, a standard way of passing it is to dilute his blood with a saline solution.

—Samuel Abt

… the one-year suspension California horse-racing officials gave him for a positive drug test on one of his horses while he was college student and part-time trainer.

—Joe Drape

2

: a study and especially a clinical trial for testing a therapeutic agent

The drug tests are blinded so that participating patients and doctors … don't know who is receiving the drug and who is receiving a placebo.

—Rhonda L. Rundle

drug test transitive verb

drug tested; drug testing; drug tests

… some in the community may be wondering if elected officials or county employees can be randomly drug tested.

—Brittany Stovall

drug testing noun

plural drug testings

… after months of chemical analysis the lab found an anabolic steroid … which had been cleverly engineered to evade standard drug testing.

—Malcolm Gladwell

We have to get medals and go to the interview room and into drug testing right after we swim.

—Matt Biondi

She was court ordered to attend meetings, classes and to submit to random drug testings.

—Jaclyn OMalley

drug-testing labs

Examples of drug test in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The outlet added that some recruits arrived for training without the necessary fingerprints and background checks, with at least 10 dismissed from training due to failing a drug test or a search finding past criminal charges. —Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill, 18 Dec. 2025

Miami-Dade Corrections That investigator performed a drug test on the victims, and both victims tested positive for cocaine, according to the arrest report. —Steven Yablonski, CBS News, 18 Dec. 2025

That’s when Cleveland Clinic cardiologist Steven Nissen was scouring a database from a pharmaceutical company that listed its drug tests, in search of clinical trials of a diabetes drug named rosiglitazone. —Jyoti Madhusoodanan, Scientific American, 16 Dec. 2025

Based on the laboratory’s study, 7-OH — a drug that basically did not exist two years ago, and which is sold unregulated at gas stations and smoke shops — ranks third among illicit substances detected in workplace drug tests, behind marijuana and amphetamines. —David Hudnall, Kansas City Star, 10 Dec. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1863, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Rhymes for drug test

• abreast
• accessed
• addressed
• appressed
• armrest
• arrest
• assessed
• attest
• backrest
• behest
• bequest
• caressed

Medical Definition

drug test

noun

1

: a test that examines a bodily specimen (as of urine, saliva, blood, or hair) for the presence of one or more usually illegal or banned substances (such as cocaine, methamphetamine, alcohol, or anabolic steroids)

a positive drug test

According to the Denver laboratory that performed the drug tests, his urine sample after last Wednesday's race showed the presence of "a drug of the phenylethylamine class."

—The New York Times

2

: a study and especially a clinical trial for testing a therapeutic agent

Because patients sometimes get better or worse on their own, drug tests also need a control group to compare the new drug with standard treatment or a placebo.

—Marilyn Chase, The Wall Street Journal

drug test transitive verb

drug testing noun

random drug testing