drug

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An illegal substance taken for pleasure that can be addictive, such as cocaine.

   The police arrested him for selling drugs.

2. 2
   noun

   A medicine used to treat illness or relieve pain.

   Aspirin is a drug that reduces pain and lowers fever.

3. 3
   verb

   To give someone drugs, especially secretly, to make them sleepy or unconscious.

   She felt strange and realized her drink had been drugged.

From Middle English drogge (“medicine”), from Middle French drogue, drocque (“tincture, pharmaceutical product”) (c. 1462), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German droge, as in droge vate (“dry vats, dry barrels”), mistaking droge for the contents, which were usually dried herbs, plants or wares. Droge comes from Middle Dutch drōghe (“dry”), from Old Dutch drōgi (“dry”), from Proto-Germanic *draugiz (“dry, hard”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerǵʰ- (“to strengthen; become hard or solid”), from *dʰer- (“to hold, hold fast, support”). Cognate with English dry, Dutch droog (“dry”), Germa…

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