empoison
verbEtymology From Middle English empoisounen, impoisounen, from Old French empoisoner, equivalent to em- + poison.
1
To poison.
- And therfore who someuer dyned or feested syre Gawayne wold comynly purueye for good fruyte for hym / and soo dyd the quene for to please sir Gawayne / she lete purueye for hym al maner of fruyte /[…]/ and this Pyonel hated syre Gawayne[…]for pure enuy & hate sir Pyonel enpoysond certayn appels for to enpoysonne sir Gawayn1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “Tercium”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVIII:
- She, with sweet words and false enticing smiles, / Infused love among the dainties set, / And with empoison'd cups our souls beguiles, / And made each knight himself and God forget.1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, X, lxv
3 more examples
- In Cæsars civill warres, Lutius Domitius taken in Prussia, having empoysoned himselfe, did afterward rue and repent his deede.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 13, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
- Shooting somebody, empoisoning him or hanging him give quite often more or less the same results.2000 September 1, Jerzy Karczmarczuk, “Separating algorithms from implementations (long)”, in comp.graphics.algorithms (Usenet):
- Mag and Maureen do not represent an idealized, sentimentalized mother-and-child relationship; they are two unhappy, malignant harpies tearing and empoisoning each other.2006, Lilian Chambers, Eamonn Jordan, The Theatre of Martin McDonagh: A World of Savage Stories, Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 29:
- Derived terms
- unempoisoned