▪ I. poisoning, vbl. n.
(ˈpɔɪzənɪŋ)
[f. poison v. + -ing1.]
a. The action of the verb poison.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 407/1 Poysenynge, intoxicacio. 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Mark v. 30 b, Treasons and poysoninges, with the practise of art Magike or sorcery. 1626 Bacon Sylva §915 Poisoning of air is no less dangerous than poisoning of water. 1631 Star Chamb. Cases (Camden) 10 A poysoninge of my Lord's honor with the Duke, with the King, and with the rest of the nobility. 1769 Blackstone Comm. IV. iii. 34 In case of murder by poisoning, a man may be a principal felon, by preparing and laying the poison. |
b. As the second element in combinations with words denoting (a) the agent or medium, as beer-poisoning, food-poisoning, fungus-poisoning, phosphorus-poisoning, (b) the object, as blood-poisoning: see blood n. 21.
| 1897 Phosphorus poisoning [see phosphorus 4]. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 1 Dec. 6/2 The number of persons..who have been or are suffering from beer-poisoning amounts to about 1,200. 1902 Daily Chron. 18 Sept. 3/4 The microbe..discovered by Dr. Klein in the Welbeck food-poisoning cases. 1904 Westm. Gaz. 6 Oct. 10/1 A very considerable number of the cases of fungus-poisoning recorded annually. |
▪ II. ˈpoisoning, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That poisons; poisonous.
| 1604 F. Herring Mod. Defence 24 The poisoning quality of Arsenicke. 1828 Bp. A. Jolly Sunday Serv. (1840) 246 Temporal quiet often proves intoxicating and poisoning by its..pleasures. 1847 Emerson Poems, Woodnotes ii. 69 Whom the city's poisoning spleen Made not pale, or fat, or lean. |