POISON, noun poiz'n. [Latin pus.]

1. A substance which, when taken into the stomach, mixed with the blood or applied to the skin or flesh, proves fatal or deleterious by an action not mechanical; venom. The more active and virulent poisons destroy life in a short time; others are slow in their operation, others produce inflammation without proving fatal. In the application of poison much depends on the quantity.

2. Any thing infectious, malignant, or noxious to health; as the poison of pestilential diseases.

3. That which taints or destroys moral purity or health; as the poison of evil example; the poison of sin.

POIS'ON, verb transitive To infect with any thing fatal to life; as, to poison an arrow.

1. To attack, injure or kill by poison

He was so discouraged that he poisoned himself and died. 2 Macc.

2. To taint; to mar; to impair; as, discontent poisons the happiness of life.

Hast thou not

With thy false arts poison'd his people's loyalty?

3. To corrupt. Our youth are poisoned with false notions of honor, or with pernicious maxims of government.

To suffer the thoughts to be vitiated, is to poison the fountains of morality.