Meaning of drug In English

• 0 any natural or artificially made chemical that is used as a medicine:

  • anti-cancer/fertility/pain-killing drugs

  • a prescription drug

  • drug therapy

  • He takes several drugs for his condition.

• 1 any natural or artificially made chemical that is taken for pleasure, to improve someone's performance of an activity, or because a person cannot stop using it:

  • illegal drugs

  • a drug addict

  • drug addiction/abuse

  • She began to suspect that her son was on/taking/doing drugs.

  • She was suspected of being a drug dealer.

  • His son died of a drug overdose.

  • Work is a drug for him.

• 2 to give a person or animal a chemical that causes him, her, or it to lose feeling or become unconscious:

  • The killer confessed that he often drugged his victims before he killed them.

  • She was heavily drugged to ease the pain.

  • UK informal We visited her in hospital but she was drugged to the eyeballs (= had been given a lot of drugs) and I don't think she even knew we were there.

• 3 any chemical that is used as a medicine:

  • over-the-counter/prescription drugs

• 4 a chemical or other substance that is illegally used, sometimes to improve performance in an activity or because a person cannot stop using it

• 5 to give a person or animal a chemical that causes a loss of feeling or the condition of being unconscious:

  • He couldn’t talk to us because he had been drugged.

• 6 a natural or artificially made substance that is used as a medicine:

  • an anti-cancer drug

  • The state is grappling for ways to curb rising drug costs in its $1 billion Medicaid drug budget.

• 7 a natural or artificially made substance, especially one that is illegal, which is taken for pleasure, to improve performance in an activity, or because someone is addicted (= cannot stop taking it):

  • a banned/illegal drug

  • take/abuse drugs He admitted abusing drugs and alcohol his entire adult life before ending up in jail.