Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An antidote against poison, especially a confection formerly held to be an antidote to all poisons.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In old pharmacy, one of various compositions of many ingredients in the form of electuaries, supposed to serve either as an antidote or as a preservative against poison.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) An antidote against poison, or a composition in form of an electuary, supposed to serve either as a remedy or a preservative against poison; an alexipharmic; -- so called from King Mithridates, its reputed inventor.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A universal antidote against poison

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin mithridātum, alteration of Late Latin mithridātīum, from Latin, neuter of Mithridātīus, of Mithridates, from Greek mithridāteios, after Mithridates VI, who is said to have acquired tolerance for poison.]

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Examples

  • Let the best of our rational physicians demonstrate and give a sufficient reason for those intricate mixtures, why just so many simples in mithridate or treacle, why such and such quantity; may they not be reduced to half or a quarter?

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • What silly mariner in my ship hath not bought or begged mithridate or a pinch of achimenius wherewith to make good his voyage?

    Sir Mortimer Mary Johnston 1903

  • The medicine mithridate forms a part of many of these prescriptions; it does not seem to be regarded as an alexipharmic, but as a soporific.

    Customs and Fashions in Old New England Alice Morse Earle 1881

  • One cannot but feel a thrill of sympathy for poor, dying Hurd on that hot September night, fairly hectored by pious, loud-voiced neighbors into eternity; and can well believe that many a colonial invalid who lived through mithridate and rubila, through sweating and blood-letting, died of the kindly and godly-intentioned praying of his neighbors.

    Customs and Fashions in Old New England Alice Morse Earle 1881

  • The more effectually to support his character as a mountebank, Villiers sold mithridate and galbanum plasters: thousands of spectators and customers thronged every day to see and hear him.

    The Wits and Beaux of Society Volume 1 Philip Wharton 1847

  • Mithridates, who had made himself poison-proof, gave us the now forgotten word ‘mithridate’, for antidote; as from Hippocrates we derived ‘hipocras’, or ‘ypocras’, a word often occurring in our early poets, being a wine supposed to be mingled after his receipt.

    English Past and Present Richard Chenevix Trench 1846

  • If you love me, go and fetch me a little conserve of Roman wormwood and mithridate.

    Old Saint Paul's A Tale of the Plague and the Fire William Harrison Ainsworth 1843

  • Then I asked for a cataplasm, composed of radish-roots, mustard-seed, onions and garlic roasted, mithridate, salt, and soot from a chimney where wood only has been burnt.

    Old Saint Paul's A Tale of the Plague and the Fire William Harrison Ainsworth 1843

  • Physicians, Bloundel was at no loss how to act, but, rubbing the part affected with a stimulating ointment, he administered at the same time doses of mithridate, Venice treacle, and other potent alexipharmics.

    Old Saint Paul's A Tale of the Plague and the Fire William Harrison Ainsworth 1843

  • Household furniture is exported to Genoa, besides the usual articles: velvets, which were then the best in the world; satins, the best coral, mithridate, and treacle, are the principal or the peculiar imports.

    A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels - Volume 18 Historical Sketch of the Progress of Discovery, Navigation, and Commerce, from the Earliest Records to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century, By William Stevenson William Stevenson 1784

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