venom (English) - Vocabulary & GRE App

venom

EN • English

//ˈvɛnəm//

Verb Conjugation Tables & Inflections

Key Verb Forms & Inflections

Third-person singular (he/she/it):venoms

Present Participle (-ing):venoming

Past Participle:venomed

Simple Past:venomed

Definitions & Usage

noun

An animal toxin intended for defensive or offensive use; a biological poison delivered by bite, sting, etc., to protect an animal or to kill its prey.

Example: “The serious artist […] [is] obsessed by his material; it’s like a venom working in his blood and the art is the antidote.”

Example: “Venom evolved from saliva and it's used primarily for catching and digesting prey.”

Synonyms:

venene venin atter zootoxin

noun

(figuratively) Feeling or speech marked by spite or malice; vitriol.

Synonyms:

venene venin atter zootoxin

verb

(transitive, obsolete) To infect with venom; to envenom; to poison.

Example: “1566, Thomas Blundeville (translator and editor), The Fower Chiefyst Offices Belongyng to Horsemanshippe, London, Chapter 36, […] washe all the filth away with warme water, and annoynte the place with Hony and Fytch flower myngled together. But beware you touche none of the kirnelles with your bare finger, for feare of venoming the place, which is very apt for a Fistula to breede in.”

adjective

(obsolete) Poisonous, poisoned; (figuratively) pernicious.

Notable Literary & Historical Quotes

“[…] There may be in the cup / A spider steep’d, and one may drink, depart, / And yet partake no venom, for his knowledge / Is not infected...”

— c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

“And from the Boughs brush off the evil dew, / And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blew, / Or what the cross dire-looking Planet smites, / Or hurtfull Worm with canker’d venom bites […]”

— 1634, John Milton, “Arcades”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 54:

“I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom.”

— 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter XX, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC: