Definitions

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

  • adjective Secreting and transmitting venom.
  • adjective Full of or containing venom.
  • adjective Malicious; spiteful.
  • adjective Harmful or destructive.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pull of venom; noxious or hurtful by means or reason of venom; venenose; poisonous: as, a venomous reptile or insect; a venomous bite.
  • Hence, noxious; virulent; extremely hurtful or injurious; poisonous in any way.
  • Very spiteful or hateful; virulent; malignant; intended or intending to do harm: as, venomous eyes or looks; a venomous attack; venomous enemies.

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

  • adjective Full of venom; noxious to animal life; poisonous.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) Having a poison gland or glands for the secretion of venom, as certain serpents and insects.
  • adjective Noxious; mischievous; malignant; spiteful.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) any serpent which has poison glands and fangs, whether dangerous to man or not. These serpents constitute two tribes, the viperine serpents, or Solenoglypha, and the cobralike serpents, or Proteroglypha. The former have perforated, erectile fangs situated in the front part of the upper jaw, and are without ordinary teeth behind the fangs; the latter have permanently erect and grooved fangs, with ordinary maxillary teeth behind them.

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

  • adjective Full of venom.
  • adjective Toxic; poisonous.
  • adjective Noxious; evil.
  • adjective Malignant; spiteful; hateful.
  • adjective Producing venom (poison usually injected into an enemy or prey by biting or stinging) in glands or accumulating venom from food.
  • adjective powerful

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

  • adjective marked by deep ill will; deliberately harmful
  • adjective extremely poisonous or injurious; producing venom

Etymologies

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Examples

  • And a congressman in line for a key leadership position is defending himself against what he calls venomous attacks.

    CNN Transcript Nov 22, 2006 2006

  • And she's learned how to identify a hot snake -- that is what we call a venomous snake -- she knows not to go in with the camels.

    CNN Transcript Jun 13, 2001 2001

  • It is a transhistoric symbol which reccurs in venomous rants against Sidon, Byblos, Tyre, Babylon and so on right down to the present day characterisation of the US by Zacarias Moussaoui as the "United Sodom of America".

    Wisdom, Justice And Mercy Hal Duncan 2006

  • I lerned that the word venomous means if it bites you it can kill you and the word poisinous means if you bite it it can kill you.

    fishbuttocks Diary Entry fishbuttocks 2006

  • Does God put this construction upon the language of mere nature, even in venomous creatures? and shall he not much more interpret favourably the language of grace in his own people, though it be weak and broken, groanings which cannot be uttered?

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon) 1721

  • On what I would describe as the venomous dark side, two commenters posted heartless comments.

    Eli Davidson: Life Balance: Can You Pass The Bacon Test? 2009

  • This was spoken in a manner that could only be called venomous.

    The Houseguest Thomas Berger 2008

  • In the end, the judge said there's no proof she did anything wrong, but in a departure from the norm, her name was published in two newspapers and she became the subject of what was described as venomous attacks on the Internet.

    CNN Transcript Apr 2, 2004 2004

  • The race, therefore, would be performed in modified Vengeance scout-combat units called thysta, roughly translating to some kind of venomous fast-striking creature – cobra, viper, something of that nature.

    Archive 2010-04-01 Blue Tyson 2010

  • Someone really ought to do a search of the terms "venomous" "rant" "anti-Semite" "self-hater" etc.etc. and see how many times they are used as a replacement for argument here.

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009

Comments

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  • “If you bite it and you die, it’s poisonous. If it bites you and you die, it’s venomous.”

    April 15, 2014

  • I like that a lot.

    April 15, 2014