drug

plural drugs

1. medicineA substance used to treat an illness, relieve a symptom, or modify a chemical process in the body for a specific purpose.

   The revenues from both brand-name drugs and generic drugs have increased.

   3 more examples

   Aspirin is a drug that reduces pain, acts against inflammation and lowers body temperature.

   whence merchants bring their spicy drugs

   1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   In the future, he says, a focus on the hate circuit may open new avenues for treatment – including new drugs and psychotherapies – that target this and other specific circuits in the brain.

   2011 October 4, Amanda MacMillan, “Depressed brains may hate differently”, in CNN

   Synonyms: conservatory, medication, medicine, medicament, pharmaceutical, pharmaceutical drug

2. A psychoactive substance, especially one which is illegal and addictive, ingested for recreational use, such as cocaine.

   They're on drugs.

   5 more examples

   We took drugs and partied all night.

   She used to be a drug addict.

   We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.

   1971, Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Harper Perennial, published 2005, page 3

   You have a twelve-year-old kid being told from the time he's like five years old that all drugs are bad, they're going to screw you up, don't try them. Just say no. Then they try pot.

   1991 March 28, unknown student, “Antihero opinion”, in SPIN, page 70

   The only thing working against the poor Drug Abuse Resistance Officer is high-school students. ... He'd offer his simple lesson: Drugs are bad, people who use drugs are bad, and abstinence is the only answer.

   2005, Thomas Brent Andrews, The Pot Plan: Louie B. Stumblin and the War on Drugs, Chronic Discontent Books, →ISBN, page 19

   Synonyms: recreational drug, dope, gear, horse, stuff, substance

3. broadlyAnything, such as a substance, emotion, or action, to which one is addicted.

   Because your love, your love, your love is my drug

   2010, Ke$ha, Pebe Sebert, Joshua Coleman (Ammo), “Your Love is My Drug”, performed by Ke$ha

   4 more examples

   Oh, get that buzz / Love is the drug / I'm thinking of

   1975, Bryan Ferry, Andy Mackay, “Love Is the Drug”, in Siren, performed by Roxy Music

   Inspiration is my drug. Such things as spirituality, booze, travel, psychedelics, contemplation, music, dance, laughter, wilderness, and ribaldry — these have simply been the different forms of the drug of inspiration for which I have had great need […]

   2005, Jack Haas, Om, Baby!: a Pilgrimage to the Eternal Self, page 8

   Fear was my drug of choice. I thrived on scary movies, ghost stories and rollercoasters. I dreamed of playing the last girl left alive in a slasher film — the one who screams herself hoarse as she discovers her friends' bodies one by one.

   2009, Niki Flynn, Dances with Werewolves, page 8

   The truth is...eating is my drug. When I am upset, I eat...when I am sad, I eat...when I am happy, I eat.

   2011, Joslyn Shy, Introducing the Truth, page 5

4. Any commodity that lies on hand, or is not salable; an article of slow sale, or in no demand.

   And virtue shall a drug become.

   1685, John Dryden, Albion and Albanius, published 1691

   1 more example

   […] Sermons are mere Drugs. The Trade is ſo vaſtly ſtocked vvith them, that really unleſs they come out vvith the Name of VVhitfield [i.e, George Whitefield] or VVeſtley [John Wesley], or ſome other ſuch great Man, as a Biſhop, or thoſe ſort of People, I don't care to touch, […]

   1742, Henry Fielding, “A Pleasant Discourse between the Two Parsons and the Bookseller, […]”, in The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams. […], volume I, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book I, page 117

5. CanadaUSabbreviationellipsisinformalEllipsis of drugstore.

   “I’ll go this far,” I answered him. “We’ll try going over to the drug. You, me, Ollie if he wants to go, one or two others. Then we’ll talk it over again.”

   1980, Stephen King, The Mist, Viking Press

present singular third person drugs · participle present drugging · participle past drugged · past drugged

1. transitiveTo administer intoxicating drugs to, generally without the recipient's knowledge or consent.

   She suddenly felt strange, and only then realized she'd been drugged.

2. transitiveTo add intoxicating drugs to with the intention of drugging someone.

   She suddenly felt strange. She realized her drink must have been drugged.

3. intransitiveTo prescribe or administer drugs or medicines.

   Past all the doses of your drugging doctors

   1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, →OCLC, (please specify the Internet Archive page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

4. intransitiverareTo use intoxicating drugs.

   To soften the blow from working in such unfamiliar territory, I drank and drugged at the end of the day.

   1990 February 4, Cindy Lanane, “With The Confidence Other Women Have Given Me”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 29, page 6

1. USdialectalparticiplepastsimple past and past participle of drag

   look what the cat drug in

   4 more examples

   You look like someone drug you behind a horse for half a mile.

   […] their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in.

   1961, Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron

   When Blackburn called, I drug the telephone cord twenty feet out of the office and sat on the cord while I talked with him.

   2005, Diane Wilson, An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, →ISBN, page 193

   It's about time you drug it home, Jeff!

   2009 August 13, Tom Armstrong, Marvin (comic)

plural drugs

1. obsoleteA drudge.

   Hadst thou, like us from our first swath, proceeded / The sweet degrees that this brief world affords / To such as may the passive drugs of it / Freely command, thou wouldst have plunged thyself / In general riot

   c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]