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  1. strychnine love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. An extremely poisonous white crystalline alkaloid, C21H22O2N2, derived from nux vomica and related plants, used as a poison for rodents and other pests and topically in medicine as a stimulant for the central nervous system.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A vegetable alkaloid (C21H22N2O2), the sole active principle of Strychnos Tieuté, the most active of the Java poisons, and one of the active principles of S. Ignatii, S. Nux-vomica, S. colubrina, etc. It is usually obtained from the seeds of S. Nux-vomica. It is colorless, inodorous, crystalline, unalterable by exposure to the air, and extremely bitter. It is little soluble, requiring 7,000 parts of water for solution. It dissolves in hot alcohol, although sparingly, if the alcohol be pure and not diluted. It forms crystallizable salts, which are intensely bitter. Strychnine and its salts, especially the latter from their solubility, are most energetic poisons. They produce tetanic spasms, but are used in medicine especially in conditions of exhaustion and certain forms of paralysis. See cut under nux vomica.

Wiktionary

  1. n. chemistry A very toxic, colourless crystalline alkaloid, derived from nux vomica, used as a pesticide

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Chem.) A very poisonous alkaloid resembling brucine, obtained from various species of plants, especially from species of Loganiaceæ, as from the seeds of the St. Ignatius bean (Strychnos Ignatia) and from nux vomica. It is obtained as a white crystalline substance, having a very bitter acrid taste, and is employed in medicine (chiefly in the form of sulphate) as a powerful neurotic stimulant. Called also strychnia, and formerly strychnina.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. an alkaloid plant toxin extracted chiefly from nux vomica; formerly used as a stimulant

Etymologies

  1. French, from New Latin Strychnos, genus name, from Latin strychnon, a kind of nightshade, from Greek strukhnon. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “November 19th, 2008 strychnine is a grand tonic, kemp, to take to take the flabbiness out of a man!”

    strychnine is a grand tonic, kemp, to take to take the flabbiness out of a man!

  • “When a small quantity of strychnine kills a man, the strychnine is the inciting power; the nature of his nervo-muscular system, apt to be thrown into spasms by that drug, and all the organs of his body dependent on that system, are the collocation.”

    Logic Deductive and Inductive

  • “Small-pox is a nuisance; strychnine is a nuisance; mad dogs are a nuisance; slavery is a nuisance; slaveholders are a nuisance, and so are slave-breeders; it is our business, nay, it is our imperative duty, to abate nuisances; we propose, therefore, with the exception of strychnine, which is the least of all these nuisances, to exterminate this catalogue from beginning to end.”

    The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It

  • “Predators, including the striped hyena, have been persecuted throughout the ecoregion by the widespread use of poisons such as strychnine because they kill livestock.”

    South Saharan steppe and woodlands

  • “During the 1950's the development was rapid and many challenging molecules such as strychnine and morphine were made synthetically.”

    The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1990

  • “These would establish whether Mr Williams was poisoned using a deadly toxin such as strychnine, cyanide or thallium, administered in such a way as to leave no mark visible to the naked eye.”

    WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

  • “For no particular reason I would like to remark that "strychnine" has the same number of syllables as "teamwork.”

    a little pregnant

  • “We have with great success made a practice of not leaving arsenic and strychnine, and typhoid and tuberculosis germs lying around for our children to be destroyed by.”

    Chapter 38

  • “But I bided my time, and one day, when opportunity was ripe, lured the animal away and settled for him with strychnine and beefsteak.”

    MOON-FACE

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hypernyms (3)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. alkaloid
  1. plant toxin
  1. phytotoxin

same context (24)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. morphia
  2. quinine
  3. chloral
  4. atropine
  1. calomel
  2. digitalis
  3. curare
  4. strychnia
  1. belladonna
  2. laudanum
  3. cyanide
  4. caffeine
  1. penicillin
  2. succinylcholine
  3. hyoscine
  4. aspirin
  1. chloroform
  2. monoxide
  3. tellurium
  4. narcotine
  1. salicylate
  2. codeine
  3. nicotine
  4. arsenic

reverse dictionary (16)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. brucine
  2. strychnia
  3. strychnic
  1. strychninization
  2. thebaine
  3. vauqueline
  1. strychninism
  2. strychnism
  3. strychnized
  1. akazgia
  2. nux vomica
  3. stovain
  1. tetanic
  2. fertilization
  3. physostigmine
  1. tutu-poison

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. toxic
  1. poison

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Lists

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Comments

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  • PossibleUnderscore In a few minutes, the muscles start convulsing, beginning with the head and neck moving down to the back. The victim finally dies of exhaustion and paralysis of the neural pathways that control breathing. According to Wikipedia: it produces some of the most dramatic and painful symptoms of any known toxic reaction. Aug 18, 2009

  • tankexmortis Some folks like water
    Some folks like wine
    Well I like the taste
    Of straight strychnine

    You may think it's funny
    That I like this stuff
    But once you've tried it
    You can't get enough

    Wine is red
    Poison is blue
    Strychnine is good
    For what's ailing you

    If you listen to what I say
    You'll try strychnine some day
    Make you cough it'll make you shout
    It'll even knock you out

    -The Sonics, "Strychnine" Jan 17, 2007

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‘strychnine’ has been looked up 1498 times, added to 19 lists, commented on 2 times, and has a Scrabble score of 18.