Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A substance used in the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of a disease or as a component of a medication.
- n. Such a substance as recognized or defined by the U.S. Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
- n. A chemical substance, such as a narcotic or hallucinogen, that affects the central nervous system, causing changes in behavior and often addiction.
- n. Obsolete A chemical or dye.
- v. To administer a drug to.
- v. To poison or mix (food or drink) with a drug.
- v. To stupefy or dull with or as if with a drug: drugged with sleep.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Any vegetable, animal, or mineral substance used in the composition or preparation of medicines; hence, also, any ingredient used in chemical preparations employed in the arts.
- n. A thing which has lost its value, and is no longer wanted; specifically, a commodity that is not salable, especially from overproduction: as, a drug in the market (the phrase in which the word is generally used).
- To mix with drugs; narcotize or make poisonous, as a beverage, by mixture with a drug: as, to drug wine (in order to render the person who drinks it insensible).
- To dose to excess with drugs or medicines.
- To administer narcotics or poisons to; render insensible with or as with a narcotic or anesthetic drug; deaden: as, he was drugged and then robbed.
- To surfeit; disgust.
- To prescribe or administer drugs or medicines, especially to excess.
- n. A drudge.
- n. Same as drogue.
Wiktionary
- n. A substance used to treat an illness, relieve a symptom, or modify a chemical process in the body for a specific purpose.
- n. A substance, often addictive, which affects the central nervous system.
- n. A chemical or substance, not necessarily for medical purposes, which alters the way the mind or body works.
- n. A substance, especially one which is illegal, ingested for recreational use.
- v. To administer intoxicating drugs to, generally without the recipient's knowledge or consent.
- v. To add intoxicating drugs to with the intention of drugging someone.
- v. simple past tense and past participle of drag.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To drudge; to toil laboriously.
- n. A drudge (?).
- n. Any animal, vegetable, or mineral substance used in the composition of medicines.
- n. Any commodity that lies on hand, or is not salable; an article of slow sale, or in no demand; -- used often in the phrase “a
drug on the market”. - n. any stuff used in dyeing or in chemical operations.
- n. any substance intended for use in the treatment, prevention, diagnosis, or cure of disease, especially one listed in the official pharmacopoeia published by a national authority.
- n. any substance having psychological effects, such as a narcotic, stimulant, or hallucinogenic agent, especially habit-forming and addictive substances, sold or used illegally
- v. To prescribe or administer drugs or medicines.
- v. To affect or season with drugs or ingredients; esp., to stupefy by a narcotic drug. Also Fig.
- v. To tincture with something offensive or injurious.
- v. To dose to excess with, or as with, drugs.
WordNet 3.0
- v. use recreational drugs
- n. a substance that is used as a medicine or narcotic
- v. administer a drug to
Etymologies
- Middle English drogge, from Old French drogue, drug, perhaps from Middle Dutch droge (vate), dry (cases), pl. of drog, dry.
Examples
“Officials usually avoid even the term "drug cartels," and instead refer to them as "organized crime," perhaps more accurate now that much of the gangs' income comes from extortion and kidnapping.”
“The term drug discovery tools usually refers to high-content screening (HCS) and analysis and is composed of those applications that require sufficient levels of sample throughput, whereby complex cellular events and phenotypes can be studied.”
“The term drug-resistant TB, or DR-TB is used to describe those strains of TB which show resistance to one or more of the common first-line drugs.”
“The term drug that gets used in this debate is part of the problem because it is meaningless.”
“If a drug is approved and fails disastrously the FDA is blamed.”
The Huffington Post: David K. Levine: Save the Whales! Abolish Patents!
“In the cases where mere possession of a drug (say marijuana) as opposed to dealing in a drug is a misdemeanour rather than a felony then things get yet more difficult.”
“Researchers analyzed how addictive a drug is and how it harms the human body, in addition to other criteria like environmental damage caused by the drug, its role in breaking up families and its economic costs, such as health care, social services, and prison.”
The Huffington Post: Alcohol More Lethal Than Heroin Or Cocaine, Study Finds
“Many panel members said they wanted to see more safety data before voting to approve the drug rather than facing potential questions after the drug is approved.”
The Wall Street Journal: FDA Rejects Vivus's Obesity Drug Qnexa
“If a drug is a bona fide public safety risk (like crystal meth) and some policy is demonstrated to reduce that risk then by all means.”
“I use this term very broadly, because from a training perspective a drug is a drug is a drug.”

yarb Citation on fetish. Mar 25, 2012
glenhaven Here in Nova Scotia, seamen and fishermen refer to a sea anchor towed behind a vessel as a "drug", from the local past tense of "drag". Feb 16, 2011
tbtabby Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2:
"I have drugg'd their possets." Sep 2, 2009
madmouth For example, "'Marriage is a leap in the dark', sez I, 'and I ain't going to be drug into it.'"
-Cousin Ernestine Bugle in Anne of Windy Poplars Jun 1, 2009
pterodactyl For some people, "drug" can be a past tense form of "drag". See this map for American usage. Apr 13, 2008
sonofgroucho Came across this list of Street Drug Slang: quite interesting! Jan 31, 2008