Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A basic nitrogenous organic compound produced by bacterial putrefaction of protein.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A generic name of alkaloid bodies formed from animal or vegetable tissues during putrefaction, and the similar bodies produced by pathogenic bacteria. Some of them are poisonous.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Physiol. Chem.) One of a class of animal bases or alkaloids formed in the putrefaction of various kinds of albuminous matter, and closely related to the vegetable alkaloids; a cadaveric poison. The ptomaines, as a class, have their origin in dead matter, by which they are to be distinguished from the leucomaines.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun chemistry Any of various amines formed by putrefactive bacteria.
  • noun dated food poisoning

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of various amines (such as putrescine or cadaverine) formed by the action of putrefactive bacteria
  • noun a term for food poisoning that is no longer in scientific use; food poisoning was once thought to be caused by ingesting ptomaines

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Italian ptomaina, from Greek ptōma, corpse, from piptein, ptō-, to fall; see pet- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French ptomaïne, from French ptomaina, from Ancient Greek πτῶμα (ptōma, "corpse").

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