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

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

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

Synonyms & Similar Words

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

Synonyms & Similar Words

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

Synonyms & Similar Words

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 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 The court heard how the former nurse, now 36, attacked babies in her care by administering air into their blood and stomachs, overfeeding them with milk, physically assaulting them and poisoning them with insulin. — Billy Stockwell, CNN Money, 15 Sep. 2026 Former Titans scout Blaise Taylor received consecutive life sentences after his conviction for poisoning his pregnant girlfriend. — Chris Branch, New York Times, 10 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
  • Throwing a piece of garbage out of the window affects every Texan, polluting water and soil and affecting wildlife.
    — Katie Standing, CBS News, 14 Oct. 2026
  • This means the development of new clean energy sources will provide greater financial benefits to families rather than polluting, expensive, and outdated sources of energy like oil and gas.
    — Sanya Carley, Time, 7 Oct. 2026
Definition of polluting
Verb
  • Online critics characterized the Polymarket contract as degrading and questioned why celebrity ambassadors would associate themselves with the company.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 20 Oct. 2026
  • Oliver got the show started by kicking his heels together and pointing out that stand-up comedy and a venue like Carnegie Hall are opposing ovals in a Venn diagram, with stand-up degrading such a magnificent space.
    — Kevin Dolak, HollywoodReporter, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of degrading
Verb
  • The chaparral, meanwhile, burns hot, turning a small fire into an intense blaze.
    — Noah Haggerty, Los Angeles Times, 17 Oct. 2026
  • So turning the lights on and off repeatedly actually may not be in your best interest.
    — Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 17 Oct. 2026
Definition of turning
Verb
  • In Season Two, the couple dealt with making the relationship work, which culminates in tensions between the pair — and without totally spoiling it, suffice to say that does not end so well.
    — Althea Legaspi, Rolling Stone, 16 Oct. 2026
  • The Dodgers left-hander had just given up the lead on Bauers’ two-run homer, spoiling what had been a stellar start Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.
    — Assistant Sports Editor, Los Angeles Times, 15 Oct. 2026
Definition of spoiling
Verb
  • 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
  • How Monster Depicts the Borden Murders Their first attempt involves serving the couple oysters in May, when the series says the city of Fall River dumps its sewage over the oyster beds, contaminating the shellfish with potentially fatal bacteria.
    — Chris Spargo, PEOPLE, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of contaminating
Verb
  • Documentarian Alex Gibney is no stranger to dissections of corrupting power — from his feature dives into Enron, Elizabeth Holmes and Scientology.
    — Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Delphi sits above a geologic vent, an X from which noxious gases escaped the earth, corrupting the minds of women who inhaled and pronounced their prophecies.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of corrupting
Verb
  • Our main hurdle has always been convincing people to pay for a cinema ticket to watch two episodes of a series.
    — Annika Pham, Variety, 16 Oct. 2026
  • To do so, the Republican Party has bet strongly this year on a strategy of convincing people that voter fraud is rampant.
    — Christopher Miller, The Conversation, 15 Oct. 2026
Definition of convincing

Browse Nearby Words

poisoned
poisoning
poisonous
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Poisoning.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/poisoning. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of asunder

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Can' vs. 'May'

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Oct. 23

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
different halloween monsters in silhouette
A Monstrous Vocab Quiz Words That Go Bump in the Night
See All