Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A bitter, yellowish-brown, strongly addictive narcotic drug prepared from the dried latex of unripe pods of the opium poppy and containing alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, and papaverine.
- noun Something that numbs or stupefies.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The inspissated juice of Papaver somniferum, a poppy cultivated from early antiquity for the sake of this product. See
poppy and Papaver.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Chem.) The inspissated juice of the
Papaver somniferum , or white poppy. - noun [Slang] a low resort of opium smokers.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun uncountable A
yellow -brown ,addictive narcotic drug obtained from thedried juice ofunripe pods of theopium poppy ,Papaver somniferum , and containingalkaloids such asmorphine ,codeine , andpapaverine . - noun countable Anything that
numbs orstupefies .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an addictive narcotic extracted from seed capsules of the opium poppy
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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It was difficult to believe that his subjection to opium could much longer resist the stings of his own conscience, and the solicitations of his friends, as well as the pecuniary destitution to which his _opium habits_ had reduced him.
Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey Joseph Cottle 1811
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He was this actor who went out and partied all night, went to bed with three women at once and he hung out in opium dens, and places like that.
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In any case, the vast bulk of opium is grown in three areas – Wardak, Kandahar and Helmand, where the local control elements, whether Taliban or not, derive power from their drug income.
Wonk Room » Holbrooke Emphasizes Agricultural Development In Afghanistan 2009
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Growing opium is legal, btw, at least as far as federal law goes (and as far as growing it ....) ....
The Volokh Conspiracy » Drawing Lines in the Commerce Clause Debate on Health Care Reform 2010
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If we start buying up the opium from the farmers and burning it, then the supply of opium on the black market falls and so the price goes up.
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"Could it be that opium is the perfect cinematic drug?" wonders Paul Matwychuk.
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Ninety two percent of the world's opium is cultivated in Afghanistan.
Archive 2007-06-01 2007
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Early indications suggest Afghanistan could see a further increase in opium production in 2007, the report said.
Archive 2007-06-01 2007
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After all, in some parts of the world opium is smoked on a regular basis.
Sound Politics: Health Effects Of Pot Get Short Shrift: Bummer, Man 2007
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After all, in some parts of the world opium is smoked on a regular basis.
Sound Politics: Health Effects Of Pot Get Short Shrift: Bummer, Man 2007
chained_bear commented on the word opium
"There were other spices that were predominantly for medical purposes. ... Francesco Pegolotti cites among his spices two kinds of opium and a botanical known as dragon's blood (extracted from the plant genus Dracanea), a medicine and red dye."
Paul Freedman, Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination (New Haven and London: Yale UP, 2008), 13.
Note the hyperlink above for Dracanea will not bring you to the word's page (but this one will). Neither will dragon's blood, unfortunately, so you can get there through typing it in the search bar or clicking onto my Spice list and finding it there. :(
October 9, 2017