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From scents to songs, many harmless things have the power to intoxicate. At least, that is, by today’s standards. The origins of intoxicate are less inviting. You might have guessed that intoxicate is related to toxic; both words trace back to the Latin noun toxicum, meaning "poison," and the earliest function of intoxicate was as an adjective describing something (such as the tip of an arrow) steeped in or smeared with poison. Toxicum turns up in the etymologies of a number of other English words including intoxicant ("something that intoxicates") and detoxify ("to remove a poison from"), and also in a number of names for various poisons themselves. Happily though, today you’re likelier to be intoxicated by Cupid’s arrow than—one hopes—by a poison dart.
Examples of intoxicate in a Sentence
Anna Kleiber, jsonline.com, 27 Oct. 2025
Authorities say Singh was arrested on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated after plowing his big rig into slow-moving traffic on the I-10 Freeway in San Bernardino County.
—Greg Wehner, FOXNews.com, 27 Oct. 2025
Brian Truitt, USA Today, 22 Oct. 2025
The popular mushroom is also commonly referred to as the fly agaric for its uncanny ability to attract and intoxicate flies.
—Matt Kasson, Popular Science, 15 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for intoxicate
Cite this Entry
“Intoxicate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intoxicate. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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intoxicate
transitive verb
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