drug

/ˈdɹʌɡ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/dɹɐɡ/

drug noun: a substance used to treat an illness, relieve a symptom, or modify a chemical process in the body for a specific purpose. Also the ellipsis of drugstore.

Noun (1)

drug (plural drugs)

A substance used to treat an illness, relieve a symptom, or modify a chemical process in the body for a specific purpose.
- Aspirin is a drug that reduces pain, acts against inflammation and lowers body temperature.
- The revenues from both brand-name drugs and generic drugs have increased.
Synonyms:

conservatory, medication, medicine, medicament, pharmaceutical, pharmaceutical drug
A psychoactive substance, especially one which is illegal and addictive, ingested for recreational use, such as cocaine.
- We took drugs and partied all night.
- They're on drugs.
Synonyms:

recreational drug, dope, gear, horse, stuff, substance
(broadly) Anything, such as a substance, emotion, or action, to which one is addicted.
- Oh, get that buzz / Love is the drug / I'm thinking of1975, Bryan Ferry, Andy Mackay, “Love Is the Drug”, in Siren, performed by Roxy Music
- Inspiration is my drug. Such things as spirituality, booze, travel, psychedelics, contemplation, music, dance, laughter, wilderness, and ribaldry — these have simply been the different forms of the drug of inspiration for which I have had great need […]2005, Jack Haas, Om, Baby!: a Pilgrimage to the Eternal Self, page 8
Any commodity that lies on hand, or is not salable; an article of slow sale, or in no demand.
- And virtue shall a drug become.1685, John Dryden, Albion and Albanius, published 1691
- […] Sermons are mere Drugs. The Trade is ſo vaſtly ſtocked vvith them, that really unleſs they come out vvith the Name of VVhitfield [i.e, George Whitefield] or VVeſtley [John Wesley], or ſome other ſuch great Man, as a Biſhop, or thoſe ſort of People, I don't care to touch, […]1742, Henry Fielding, “A Pleasant Discourse between the Two Parsons and the Bookseller, […]”, in The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, and of His Friend Mr. Abraham Adams. […], volume I...

Verb

drug (third-person singular simple present drugs, present participle drugging, simple past and past participle drugged)

(transitive) To administer intoxicating drugs to, generally without the recipient's knowledge or consent.
- She suddenly felt strange, and only then realized she'd been drugged.
(transitive) To add intoxicating drugs to with the intention of drugging someone.
- She suddenly felt strange. She realized her drink must have been drugged.
(intransitive) To prescribe or administer drugs or medicines.
- Past all the doses of your drugging doctors1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, →OCLC, (please specify the Internet...
(intransitive, rare) To use intoxicating drugs.
- To soften the blow from working in such unfamiliar territory, I drank and drugged at the end of the day.1990 February 4, Cindy Lanane, “With The Confidence Other Women Have Given Me”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 29, page 6

Noun (2)

drug (plural drugs)

(obsolete) A drudge.
- Hadst thou, like us from our first swath, proceeded / The sweet degrees that this brief world affords / To such as may the passive drugs of it / Freely command, thou wouldst have plunged thyself / In general riotc. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

Also used as

drug is also the ellipsis of drugstore.

drug is also the simple past and past participle of drag.

drug meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

drug in Hindi

psychoactive substance ingested for recreational use, especially illegal and addictive one: मादक mādak, नशा naśā

drug in Urdu

psychoactive substance ingested for recreational use, especially illegal and addictive one: مادَک mādak, نَشَہ naśa, مُخَدِّر muxaddir

drug in Bengali

psychoactive substance ingested for recreational use, especially illegal and addictive one: নেশা neśa

drug in Malayalam

psychoactive substance ingested for recreational use, especially illegal and addictive one: മയക്കുമരുന്ന് mayakkumarunnŭ

More languagesFewer languages

drug in Sanskrit: औषध auṣadha, भेषज bheṣaja, अगद agada
drug in Nepali: मादक mādak
drug in Pashto: مخدر muxadér
drug in Tagalog: droga
drug in Arabic: مُخَدِّر muḵaddir, عَقَّار ʕaqqār
drug in Malay: narkotik, dadah, ubat
drug in Indonesian: narkoba, narkotik
drug in Thai: ยาเสพติด yaa-sèep-dtìt
drug in Vietnamese: ma túy
drug in Myanmar: ဆေး hce:

Examples of drug in a sentence

She used to be a drug addict.
whence merchants bring their spicy drugs1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert...
In the future, he says, a focus on the hate circuit may open new avenues for treatment – including new drugs and psychotherapies – that target this and other specific circuits in the brain.2011 October 4, Amanda MacMillan, “Depressed brains may hate differently”, in CNN:
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.1971, Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Harper Perennial, published 2005, page 3:
You have a twelve-year-old kid being told from the time he's like five years old that all drugs are bad, they're going to screw you up, don't try them.1991 March, unknown student, “Antihero opinion”, in SPIN, page 70:

Synonyms of drug

2 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of drug

Forms of drug

Noun
plural	drugs
Verb
third-person singular present	drugs
present participle	drugging
past participle	drugged
past	drugged

Origin of drug

From Middle English drogge (“medicine”), from Middle French drogue, drocque (“tincture, pharmaceutical product”) (c. 1462), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German droge, as in droge vate (“dry vats, dry barrels”), mistaking droge for the contents, which were usually dried herbs, plants or wares. Droge comes from Middle Dutch drōghe (“dry”), from Old Dutch drōgi (“dry”), from Proto-Germanic *draugiz (“dry, hard”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerǵʰ- (“to strengthen; become hard or solid”), from *dʰer- (“to hold, hold fast, support”). Displaced native Old English lybb (“drug, medicine”). Cognate with English dry, Dutch droog (“dry”), German trocken (“dry”).

Germanic ablaut formation. If old, a doublet of drew, from Middle English drug, drog, drugh, drogh, from Old English drōg, from Proto-Germanic *drōg; compare Dutch droeg, German trug, Swedish drog. If secondary, probably formed by analogy with dug.

Phrases with drug

67 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with drug

23 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about drug

What does drug mean?: Drug means a substance used to treat an illness, relieve a symptom, or modify a chemical process in the body for a specific purpose.
What is drug in Hindi?: Drug in Hindi is मादक (mādak), नशा (naśā). See Drug meaning in Hindi.
How do you use drug in a sentence?: She used to be a drug addict.
What part of speech is drug?: Drug can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce drug?: Drug is pronounced /ˈdɹʌɡ/ (UK).
What is the plural of drug?: The plural of drug is drugs.

Words near drug in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: drug (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-drug.ogg, En-uk-drug.ogg.

Cite this entry: “drug.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/drug. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.