0 past simple and past participle of poison --
1 to kill a person or animal or to make them very ill by giving them poison: --
2 to spoil a friendship or another situation, by making it very unpleasant: --
Shepherds may have also been poisoned by the chemicals used in treating various sheep diseases.
First, it is a retribution for the presumed sins of the widow : if her husband was dead she must have poisoned him.
Another explanation that may apply in some cases is that an unpopular government can plan to leave a poisoned fiscal chalice.
Nowhere in these labyrinthine catalogues of crime and punishment does one see references to women who poisoned their husbands.
One report claimed that someone had taken some longicorn beetles from the mountains and cast them into the inlet, which poisoned the water.
Therefore, if a wife survived her husband, it was reasonable to assume that she had poisoned him.
It is unlikely that texts with such uncompromising standards for women would have been silent if wives frequently poisoned their husbands.
He was instructed to assume charge immediately, and report back, but he clearly regarded this ostensible promotion as a poisoned chalice.
