Wiktionary

drug

English

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Pronunciation

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  • (UK, US) IPA(key): /dɹʌɡ/, [d̠͡ɹ̠˔ʷʌɡ]
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (UK):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌɡ

Etymology 1

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From Middle English drogge (“medicine”), from Old French drogue, drocque (“tincture, pharmaceutical product”), 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 *dʰrewgʰ- (“to strengthen; become hard or solid”), from *dʰer- (“to hold, hold fast, support”). Cognate with English dry, Dutch droog (“dry”), German trocken (“dry”).

Noun

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drug (plural drugs)

  1. (pharmacology) A substance used to treat an illness, relieve a symptom, or modify a chemical process in the body for a specific purpose.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pharmaceutical
    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.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      whence merchants bring their spicy drugs
  2. A psychoactive substance, especially one which is illegal and addictive, ingested for recreational use, such as cocaine.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:recreational drug
    We took drugs and partied all night.
    They're on drugs.
    She used to be a drug addict.
    • 1971, Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Harper Perennial, published 2005, page 3:
      We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.
    • March 1991, unknown student, "Antihero opinion", SPIN, page 70
      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. Just say no. Then they try pot.
    • 2005, Thomas Brent Andrews, The Pot Plan: Louie B. Stumblin and the War on Drugs, Chronic Discontent Books, →ISBN, page 19:
      The only thing working against the poor Drug Abuse Resistance Officer is high-school students. ... He'd offer his simple lesson: Drugs are bad, people who use drugs are bad, and abstinence is the only answer.
  3. Anything, such as a substance, emotion, or action, to which one is addicted.
    • 2005, Jack Haas, Om, Baby!: a Pilgrimage to the Eternal Self, page 8:
      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 […]
    • 2009, Niki Flynn, Dances with Werewolves, page 8:
      Fear was my drug of choice. I thrived on scary movies, ghost stories and rollercoasters. I dreamed of playing the last girl left alive in a slasher film — the one who screams herself hoarse as she discovers her friends' bodies one by one.
    • 2010, Kesha Rose Sebert (Ke$ha), with Pebe Sebert and Joshua Coleman (Ammo), Your Love is My Drug
    • 2011, Joslyn Shy, Introducing the Truth, page 5:
      The truth is...eating is my drug. When I am upset, I eat...when I am sad, I eat...when I am happy, I eat.
  4. Any commodity that lies on hand, or is not salable; an article of slow sale, or in no demand.
  5. (Canada, US, informal) Short for drugstore.
    • 1980, Stephen King, The Mist:
      “I’ll go this far,” I answered him. “We’ll try going over to the drug. You, me, Ollie if he wants to go, one or two others. Then we’ll talk it over again.”
Derived terms
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terms derived from drug (noun)
Collocations
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Adjectives often used with "drug"
  • dangerous, illicit, illegal, psychoactive, generic, hard, veterinary, recreational
Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

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

  1. (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.
  2. (transitive) To add intoxicating drugs to with the intention of drugging someone.
    She suddenly felt strange. She realized her drink must have been drugged.
  3. (intransitive) To prescribe or administer drugs or medicines.
  4. (intransitive, rare) To use intoxicating drugs.
    • 1990 February 4, Cindy Lanane, “With The Confidence Other Women Have Given Me”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 29, page 6:
      To soften the blow from working in such unfamiliar territory, I drank and drugged at the end of the day.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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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 hang.

Verb

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drug

  1. (dialectal) simple past and past participle of drag
    You look like someone drug you behind a horse for half a mile.
    look what the cat drug in
    • 1961, Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron:
      […] their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in.
    • 2005, Diane Wilson, An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, →ISBN, page 193:
      When Blackburn called, I drug the telephone cord twenty feet out of the office and sat on the cord while I talked with him.
    • 2009 August 13, Tom Armstrong, Marvin (comic):
      It's about time you drug it home, Jeff!
Usage notes
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  • Random House says that drug is "nonstandard" as the past tense of drag. Merriam-Webster once ruled that drug in this construction was "illiterate" but have since upgraded it to "dialect". The lexicographers of New World, American Heritage, and Oxford make no mention of this sense.

Etymology 3

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Noun

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drug (plural drugs)

  1. (obsolete) A drudge.

Dutch

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English drug.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): (Netherlands) /drʏk/, (Belgium) /drʏx/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: drug

Noun

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drug m (plural drugs)

  1. (chiefly plural, which see) a recreational drug, psychoactive substance, especially when illegal and addictive

Derived terms

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Old Polish

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Etymology

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Inherited from Proto-Slavic *drȗgъ. First attested in the fifteenth century.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): (10th–15th CE) /druːk/
  • IPA(key): (15th CE) /druk/

Noun

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drug m animacy unattested

  1. (attested in Lesser Poland) friend
    Synonym: przyjaciel
    Antonym: wróg
    • 1930 [c. 1455], “Tob”, in Ludwik Bernacki, editor, Biblia królowej Zofii (Biblia szaroszpatacka)‎[1], 7, 7:
      Bødz tobye poszegnanye, sinu moy myly, bo gesz dobrego druga a czsnego møza sin (boni et optimi viri filius es)
      [Bądź tobie pożegnanie, synu moj miły, bo jeś dobrego druga a csnego męża syn (boni et optimi viri filius es)]
    • 1907 [c. 1470], Jakub Parkoszowic, edited by Jan Łoś, Traktat o ortografii polskiej‎[2], Żurawica, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, Krakow, page 401:
      Omnes... vocales modo longantur, modo patulo breviantur. Ex quarum longacione et breviacione diversus consurgit sensus diccionum... Exemplum de u: druga, druug
      [Omnes... vocales modo longantur, modo patulo breviantur. Ex quarum longacione et breviacione diversus consurgit sensus diccionum... Exemplum de u: druga, drug]
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nouns
adjectives

Descendants

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  • Polish: drug

References

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  • B. Sieradzka-Baziur, Ewa Deptuchowa, Joanna Duska, Mariusz Frodyma, Beata Hejmo, Dorota Janeczko, Katarzyna Jasińska, Krystyna Kajtoch, Joanna Kozioł, Marian Kucała, Dorota Mika, Gabriela Niemiec, Urszula Poprawska, Elżbieta Supranowicz, Ludwika Szelachowska-Winiarzowa, Zofia Wanicowa, Piotr Szpor, Bartłomiej Borek, editors (2011–2015), “drug”, in Słownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków: IJP PAN, →ISBN

Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Serbo-Croatian druga.[1]

Noun

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drug m (plural drugi)

  1. pole, stick

Declension

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Declension of drug
singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative drug drugul drugi drugii
genitive-dative drug drugului drugi drugilor
vocative drugule drugilor

References

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  1. ^ Paliga, Sorin (2024) An Etymological Dictionary of the Romanian Language, New York: Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 276

Serbo-Croatian

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Etymology

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Inherited from Proto-Slavic *drugъ, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *draugás, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ-.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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drȗg m (Cyrillic spelling дру̑г)

  1. (Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro) friend
    Synonyms: prijatelj, drugar, (slang, Croatia) frend
  2. (dated) comrade (commonly used in parts of Former Yugoslavia among coworkers or friends)
    Synonym: drugar

Declension

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Declension of drug
singular plural
nominative drȗg drȕgovi / drȗzi
genitive druga drugova / druga
dative drugu drugovima / druzima
accusative druga drugove / druge
vocative drȗže drugovi / druzi
locative drugu drugovima / druzima
instrumental drugom drugovima / druzima

Derived terms

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Further reading

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  • “drug”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025

Slovene

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Pronunciation

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Adjective

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drȗg (not comparable)

  1. other, another, different

Declension

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 The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.
Hard
masculine feminine neuter
nom. sing. drúg drúga drúgo
singular
masculine feminine neuter
nominative drúg ind
drúgi def 		drúga drúgo
genitive drúgega drúge drúgega
dative drúgemu drúgi drúgemu
accusative nominativeinan or
genitiveanim 		drúgo drúgo
locative drúgem drúgi drúgem
instrumental drúgim drúgo drúgim
dual
masculine feminine neuter
nominative drúga drúgi drúgi
genitive drúgih drúgih drúgih
dative drúgima drúgima drúgima
accusative drúga drúgi drúgi
locative drúgih drúgih drúgih
instrumental drúgima drúgima drúgima
plural
masculine feminine neuter
nominative drúgi drúge drúga
genitive drúgih drúgih drúgih
dative drúgim drúgim drúgim
accusative drúge drúge drúga
locative drúgih drúgih drúgih
instrumental drúgimi drúgimi drúgimi

See also

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Further reading

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  • “drug”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU (in Slovene), 2014–2025

Veps

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Etymology

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From Russian друг (drug, “(male) friend”).

Noun

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drug

  1. paramour (illicit lover)
  2. lover

Declension

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Inflection of drug (inflection type 1/ilo)
nominative sing. drug
genitive sing. drugun
partitive sing. drugud
partitive plur. druguid
singular plural
nominative drug drugud
accusative drugun drugud
genitive drugun druguiden
partitive drugud druguid
essive-instructive drugun druguin
translative druguks druguikš
inessive drugus druguiš
elative druguspäi druguišpäi
illative druguhu druguihe
adessive drugul druguil
ablative drugulpäi druguilpäi
allative drugule druguile
abessive druguta druguita
comitative drugunke druguidenke
prolative drugudme druguidme
approximative I drugunno druguidenno
approximative II drugunnoks druguidennoks
egressive drugunnopäi druguidennopäi
terminative I druguhusai druguihesai
terminative II drugulesai druguilesai
terminative III drugussai —
additive I druguhupäi druguihepäi
additive II drugulepäi druguilepäi
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