Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To stupefy or excite by the action of a chemical substance such as alcohol.
  • intransitive verb To stimulate or excite.
  • intransitive verb To poison.
  • intransitive verb To cause stupefaction, stimulation, or excitement by or as if by use of a chemical substance.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Intoxicated.
  • To poison.
  • To make drunk, as with spirituous liquor; inebriate.
  • Figuratively, to excite to a very high pitch of feeling; elate to exaltation, enthusiasm, or frenzy: as, one intoxicated by success.
  • To poison.
  • To cause or produce intoxication; have the property of intoxicating: as, an intoxicating liquor.

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

  • adjective Intoxicated.
  • adjective Overexcited, as with joy or grief.
  • transitive verb To poison; to drug.
  • transitive verb To make drunk; to inebriate; to excite or to stupefy by strong drink or by a narcotic substance.
  • transitive verb To excite to a transport of enthusiasm, frenzy, or madness; to elate unduly or excessively.

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

  • verb To stupefy by doping with chemical substances such as alcohol.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make drunk (with alcoholic drinks)
  • verb have an intoxicating effect on, of a drug
  • verb fill with high spirits; fill with optimism

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, to poison, from Medieval Latin intoxicāre, intoxicāt- : Latin in-, in; see in– + Late Latin toxicāre, to smear with poison (from Latin toxicum, poison; see toxic).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Medieval Latin intoxicātus, past participle of intoxicō, from Latin toxicō < toxicus, from Ancient Greek τοξικόν.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word intoxicate.

Examples

  • Arab. hashshashin and hashishiyyin, lit. "a hashish-eater, one addicted to hashish," both forms in Arabic being applied to the Ismaili sectarians, who used to intoxicate themselves with hashish or hemp, when preparing to dispatch some king or public man.

    Chris Weigant: Should America Assassinate? Chris Weigant 2011

  • Jasmine and rose tread lightly; amber and white musk intoxicate and cardamom and pink pepper lift your spirits.

    Spice and Everything Nice 2012

  • Arab. hashshashin and hashishiyyin, lit. "a hashish-eater, one addicted to hashish," both forms in Arabic being applied to the Ismaili sectarians, who used to intoxicate themselves with hashish or hemp, when preparing to dispatch some king or public man.

    Chris Weigant: Should America Assassinate? Chris Weigant 2011

  • Arab. hashshashin and hashishiyyin, lit. "a hashish-eater, one addicted to hashish," both forms in Arabic being applied to the Ismaili sectarians, who used to intoxicate themselves with hashish or hemp, when preparing to dispatch some king or public man.

    Chris Weigant: Should America Assassinate? Chris Weigant 2011

  • Arab. hashshashin and hashishiyyin, lit. "a hashish-eater, one addicted to hashish," both forms in Arabic being applied to the Ismaili sectarians, who used to intoxicate themselves with hashish or hemp, when preparing to dispatch some king or public man.

    Chris Weigant: Should America Assassinate? Chris Weigant 2011

  • The right to intoxicate is a fundamental human right, as basic as the rights to worship or to engage in dangerous sports.

    Letters: Getting high is a basic human right 2011

  • Twenty years later, these theories re-emerged in comics like "Pharaon: The Ice Brain," in which spies uncover a Nazi cabal bunkered inside a Tibetan mountain, where they have built a supercomputer "to intoxicate the world and bewitch the people!"

    Tibet Goes KABOOM! Lee Lawrence 2012

  • They know that the mainstream press is in thrall to power and is therefore compromised, thus they're seeking a new path to redress their grievances -- and new antidotes to the poison spread by the powerful to intoxicate the minds and hearts of the powerless.

    William Astore: The Failure of Our "Free" Press William Astore 2012

  • “A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.”

    Think Progress » Purported doctor on Texas A&M message board claims he ‘laid off my first Obama voting employee.’ (Updated) 2010

  • Arab. hashshashin and hashishiyyin, lit. "a hashish-eater, one addicted to hashish," both forms in Arabic being applied to the Ismaili sectarians, who used to intoxicate themselves with hashish or hemp, when preparing to dispatch some king or public man.

    Chris Weigant: Should America Assassinate? Chris Weigant 2011

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • The high in WeirdNet's def is optional, methinks.

    July 30, 2008

  • I imagine the word enveloped in a green and purple mist surrounded by great stone walls, dripping with blackness...don't ask me why.

    July 18, 2009

  • You're head over heels in Lovecraft?

    July 18, 2009

  • lol. Not quite, I just have this irritating habit of imagining what I read.

    July 18, 2009