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 While the mines themselves trample landscapes, the mercury used in the process is poisoning communities. — ABC News, 14 Aug. 2026 Women in ancient Rome used toad secretions to murder their husbands; 16th-century Italian chemists laced salts with toad toxins for poisoning the food of enemies. — Kimon De Greef, Longreads, 4 Aug. 2026 Historically used in dry cleaning or to degrease metal parts, the chemicals leaked into the base’s wells, poisoning the drinking water. — Wuft News, Miami Herald, 29 July 2026 In the past, farmers have been suspected of deliberately poisoning elephants to prevent them from eating crops. — CBS News, 29 July 2026 What looks like a matter of simple intellectual convenience is more a case of poisoning the water hole. — Richard Lansdown, The New York Review of Books, 25 June 2026 One of Robinson's attorneys, Kathryn Nester, also represented Kouri Richins, who was convicted of poisoning her husband, Eric Richins, in March 2022. — Adam Sabes, FOXNews.com, 23 June 2026 Lewis was accused of poisoning two white female housemates, assaulted by a white mob in response to the charge, and acquitted in court, only to then be accused of stealing art supplies and prohibited from reënrolling. — Zachary Fine, New Yorker, 8 June 2026 It was also used in a separate supply-chain attack poisoning dozens of Red Hat packages. — Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 8 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for poisoning
  1. tainting
  2. polluting
  3. degrading
  4. turning
  5. spoiling
  6. contaminating
  7. corrupting
  8. convincing
Verb
  • 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
  • District Court Judge Tony Graf ordered measures to prevent the comments by Utah County prosecutor Christopher Ballard from tainting potential jurors should the case go to trial.
    — Reuters, NBC news, 26 June 2026
Definition of tainting
Verb
  • The only appropriate response to the industry’s rush to build costly, polluting gas plants at the sites of data centers is a pause in development and enactment of new policy guardrails, designed in close consultation with affected communities.
    — John Kostyack, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2026
  • This large mass will translate into higher quantities of polluting propellant needed to loft these systems off Earth and a much larger amount of metals vaporizing in Earth's atmosphere during reentry.
    — Tereza Pultarova, Space.com, 11 Aug. 2026
Definition of polluting
Verb
  • The Kremlin has also started to systematically target Ukrainian ports and ships in the Black Sea in hopes of degrading the infrastructure that supports the country’s agricultural exports.
    — Alexander Gabuev, Foreign Affairs, 31 July 2026
  • In a public service announcement Thursday, the agencies said water and wastewater utilities have reported incidents to the FBI, with some malicious activity degrading water operations.
    — Daniel Arkin, NBC news, 31 July 2026
Definition of degrading
Verb
  • Chip giant Nvidia is eyeing the possibility of turning its artificial intelligence chips into Wall Street's newest asset class.
    — Lim Hui Jie, CNBC, 11 Aug. 2026
  • Clear terms keep care from turning into confusion later on today.
    — Tarot.com, Baltimore Sun, 10 Aug. 2026
Definition of turning
Verb
  • Decades later, the government was still buying surplus cheese and storing it in vast underground caves in Missouri, Wisconsin, and Kansas, warehouses cool enough to hold the cheese for years without spoiling.
    — Catherina Gioino, Fortune, 10 Aug. 2026
  • The heat won’t be the only thing spoiling New Yorkers’ fun in the sun this weekend.
    — Jessica Schladebeck, New York Daily News, 7 Aug. 2026
Definition of spoiling
Verb
  • Once the gold is separated, the mercury is released into the rivers, contaminating water sources and fish essential to Indigenous life.
    — Gabriela Sa Pessoa, Fortune, 24 July 2026
  • This methane could collect in the same cold pockets where ice and ancient molecules have been collected for billions of years, possibly contaminating this finite, scientific evidence.
    — Chelsea Gohd, Space.com, 14 July 2026
Definition of contaminating
Verb
  • Validation rules, schema standards and completeness checks at the entry point prevent bad master data from corrupting everything downstream.
    — Jacqueline DeStefano-Tangorra, Forbes.com, 4 Aug. 2026
  • Character also involves standing up to people who are bankrupting and corrupting this country.
    — CBS News, CBS News, 31 May 2026
Definition of corrupting
Verb
  • Warner’s deal with Suno appears to also require at least some degree of artist opt-in, and in general, convincing artists and managers may prove to be a challenge.
    — Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 12 Aug. 2026
  • The play opens with Leontes convincing himself that a pregnant Hermione has been sleeping with his friend Polixenes, the king of Bohemia (played by Gilbert Owuor).
    — Christopher Barnard, Vogue, 11 Aug. 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 17 Aug. 2026.

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