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 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 The burning of fossil fuels is poisoning the air our kids breathe and endangering their present and future by overheating our planet. — Catarina Rolfsdotter-Jansson, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 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
  • 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
  • Many off-grid communities have long relied on costly, polluting diesel generators.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of polluting
Verb
  • Experts told the Herald that the use of such cages as punishment could violate international laws against torture and degrading treatment.
    — Claire Healy, Miami Herald, 8 Oct. 2026
  • Local farms face ever degrading soil conditions, tougher markets and more extreme weather patterns.
    — Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Observer, 6 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
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Cite this Entry

“Poisoning.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/poisoning. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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