poisoning

verb

present participle of poison
1
as in tainting
to affect slightly with something morally bad or undesirable poisoning the minds of impressionable children with ethnic hatred

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2
as in polluting
to make unfit for use by the addition of something harmful or undesirable exhaust fumes poisoning the air

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in degrading
to lower in character, dignity, or quality this party partisanship poisons the national debate we should be having about this urgent problem

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
4
as in turning
to cause to have often negative opinions formed without sufficient knowledge malicious rumors had poisoned many church members against the new pastor

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of poisoning Her father, Steve Apa, told the New York Times that the cause was rhabdomyolysis, also known as rhabdo, a rare condition in which skeletal muscle breaks down and dies quickly, poisoning the body. — Jen Christensen, CNN Money, 4 Nov. 2026 Her father told The New York Times that she’d been stricken with rhabdomyolysis, a rare condition in which muscles can break down during exertion, poisoning the body. — Larry Neumeister, Chicago Tribune, 3 Nov. 2026 May says national polarization is poisoning the atmosphere locally. — Stuart Miller, Los Angeles Times, 16 Oct. 2026 James Folta considers how generative AI is poisoning the literary well for everyone. — Literary Hub, 14 Oct. 2026 The government was the one that was poisoning the industrial alcohol the people were stealing to make bathtub gin. — Stephanie Nolasco, FOXNews.com, 13 Oct. 2026 Could something so commonplace really be slowly poisoning people? — Sean McCann, The Conversation, 28 Sep. 2026 Four years later, Kaczynski started adding booby traps around his cabin, and throughout the 1980s, he was accused by his neighbors of poisoning their dogs, The New York Times reported in 1999. — Katie Mather, PEOPLE, 28 Sep. 2026 See list Symptoms of salmonella poisoning Symptoms of salmonella poisoning usually start six hours to six days after ingesting the bacteria. — Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA Today, 10 Sep. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for poisoning
  1. tainting
  2. polluting
  3. degrading
  4. turning
  5. spoiling
  6. contaminating
  7. corrupting
  8. convincing
Verb
  • Several homeowners near Meta’s massive Newton County data center have filed a lawsuit accusing the tech company and others of tainting their water and destroying their rural way of life.
    — Zachary Hansen, AJC.com, 1 Sep. 2026
  • For all intents and purposes, an unknown actor can wade unburdened into the depths of Bond, able to transform without a viewer’s prior expectation tainting the image of 007.
    — Emily Maskell, IndieWire, 10 July 2026
Definition of tainting
Verb
  • In recent years, the plastics industry has touted the promise of chemical recycling, a set of costly, often polluting technologies that break plastic into its molecular building blocks.
    — Lisa Song, ProPublica, 29 Oct. 2026
  • Any type of foreign material can harm a hydrothermal feature, either by clogging the water supply, polluting the water or blocking its runoff channel, according to the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.
    — Sadie Chafe, FOXNews.com, 25 Oct. 2026
Definition of polluting
Verb
  • The experiments will test whether the reactor’s exhaust system can endure the punishment of such high-performance plasma without degrading.
    — Aman Tripathi, Interesting Engineering, 4 Nov. 2026
  • Faulkner said he is fed up with Citation’s yearslong pattern of degrading his pastures.
    — Nick Bowlin, ProPublica, 27 Oct. 2026
Definition of degrading
Verb
  • America must become better at turning breakthrough ideas into products the world can afford.
    — Rick Lazio, Fortune, 24 Oct. 2026
  • On October 24, 2006, Taylor Swift was released—the debut album by a 16-year-old with blonde curls, cowboy boots, and a special talent for turning heartbreak into hits.
    — Ilaria Perrotta, Vanity Fair, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of turning
Verb
  • But there were also drawbacks, mainly a fear of accidentally spoiling certain events that occur in season six.
    — Lisa de los Reyes, HollywoodReporter, 21 Oct. 2026
  • Without spoiling the big second-act reveal, no one in this play – or in the audience – has an unchallengeable claim on the truth.
    — Greg Evans, Deadline, 18 Oct. 2026
Definition of spoiling
Verb
  • Simon Wohlfahrt | Afp | Getty Images As France’s economic and political woes mount, investors are asking whether the country’s debt problems risk contaminating the rest of the euro zone.
    — Jenni Reid,Chloe Taylor, CNBC, 23 Oct. 2026
  • Lincoln Park Zoo sits atop a former burial ground, Chicago City Cemetery, which was moved in the 1860s amid concerns that the graves were contaminating the water supply.
    — Jennifer Day, Chicago Tribune, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of contaminating
Verb
  • Cartels instead target local leaders, either corrupting them or killing those who stand in their way.
    — Megan Janetsky, Los Angeles Times, 30 Oct. 2026
  • But there’s a difference between drinking before entering the ring once and corrupting bullfighting for years.
    — Stephen Bates, New Yorker, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of corrupting
Verb
  • In Knox, Clark has spent much of this school year convincing those families to complete their meal applications.
    — Lauren Lumpkin, Washington Post, 22 Oct. 2026
  • The two have been tasked with convincing Prince William to reconcile with Harry, which won’t be easy.
    — Allison DeGrushe, StyleCaster, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of convincing

Browse Nearby Words

poisoned
poisoning
poisonous
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Cite this Entry

“Poisoning.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/poisoning. Accessed 8 Nov. 2026.

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