opium

noun

opi·​um ˈō-pē-əm 

1

: a bitter brownish addictive narcotic drug that consists of the dried latex obtained from immature seed capsules of the opium poppy

2

: something having an effect like that of opium

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

The set design team instead took some creative license and spun a backstory: that Miss Havisham’s family had connections to the Dutch East India company and the opium trade. —Anna Fixsen, ELLE Decor, 18 Apr. 2023

In the book, Dickens doesn’t dwell on the origin of her family’s riches (though it is implied to be based on their land holdings), whereas Knight has pointedly made the source of her generational wealth the opium and slave trades. —Inkoo Kang, The New Yorker, 26 Mar. 2023

Soon the community — unencumbered by the Victorian-era laws and sensibilities of Watsonville and ignored by Monterey County — became a safety valve for Watsonville, providing the recreations of gambling, opium and prostitution for a largely male populace. —Susanne Rust, Los Angeles Times, 20 Mar. 2023

Last season was Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s tale of moral and emotional depravity Dangerous Liaisons, and the one before that was Charles de Baudelaire’s Artificial Paradises, a story about coming under the influence of opium and hashish. —José Criales-unzueta, Vogue, 18 Jan. 2023

The European Central Bank can control the supply of Euros and has chosen to be lax about the money supply within to dose the European peoples with financial opium: being content at rising real estate and asset prices so as not to cause too much political turmoil. —Roger Huang, Forbes, 18 Dec. 2022

Drug addiction has long been a problem in Afghanistan, the world’s biggest producer of opium and heroin. —Time, 23 Nov. 2022

The new use: shipping opium. —Josh St. Clair, Men's Health, 10 June 2022

The Taliban’s control of the lucrative opium trade? —Peter Bergen, CNN, 28 Mar. 2023

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Word History

Etymology

Middle English, borrowed from Latin, "latex of the opium poppy, drug made from this latex," borrowed from Greek ópion, diminutive of opós "plant juice, latex," going back (with generalization of Ionic loss of h-) to Indo-European *sok^wo-, whence also Old Church Slavic sokŭ "juice," Lithuanian sakaĩ "resin"

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing opium

• opium poppy

• opium poppy

Kids Definition

opium

noun

opi·​um ˈō-pē-əm 

1

: a bitter brownish narcotic drug that causes addiction and is the dried juice of the unripe fruit capsule of the opium poppy

2

: something having an effect like that of opium

Medical Definition

opium

noun

opi·​um ˈō-pē-əm 

: a highly addictive drug that consists of the dried milky juice from the seed capsules of the opium poppy obtained from incisions made in the unripe capsules of the plant, that has a brownish yellow color, a faint smell, and a bitter and acrid taste, that is a stimulant narcotic usually producing a feeling of well-being, hallucinations, and drowsiness terminating in coma or death if the dose is excessive, that was formerly used in medicine to soothe pain but is now often replaced by derivative alkaloids (as morphine or codeine) or synthetic substitutes, and that is smoked illicitly as an intoxicant with harmful effects