Definitions

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

  • noun An extremely poisonous white crystalline alkaloid, C21H22O2N2, derived from nux vomica and related plants, used as a poison for rodents and other pests and formerly as a stimulant.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A vegetable alkaloid (C21H22N2O2), the sole active principle of Strychnos Tieuté, the most active of the Java poisons, and one of the active principles of S. Ignatii, S. Nux-vomica, S. colubrina, etc.

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

  • noun (Chem.) A very poisonous alkaloid resembling brucine, obtained from various species of plants, especially from species of Loganiaceæ, as from the seeds of the St. Ignatius bean (Strychnos Ignatia) and from nux vomica. It is obtained as a white crystalline substance, having a very bitter acrid taste, and is employed in medicine (chiefly in the form of the sulphate) as a powerful neurotic stimulant. Called also strychnia, and formerly strychnina.

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

  • noun chemistry A very toxic, colourless crystalline alkaloid, derived from nux vomica, used as a pesticide

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

  • noun an alkaloid plant toxin extracted chiefly from nux vomica; formerly used as a stimulant

Etymologies

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

[French, from New Latin Strychnos, genus name, from Latin strychnon, a kind of nightshade, from Greek strukhnon.]

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Examples

  • November 19th, 2008 strychnine is a grand tonic, kemp, to take to take the flabbiness out of a man!

    strychnine is a grand tonic, kemp, to take to take the flabbiness out of a man! matociquala 2008

  • When a small quantity of strychnine kills a man, the strychnine is the inciting power; the nature of his nervo-muscular system, apt to be thrown into spasms by that drug, and all the organs of his body dependent on that system, are the collocation.

    Logic Deductive and Inductive Carveth Read 1889

  • Small-pox is a nuisance; strychnine is a nuisance; mad dogs are a nuisance; slavery is a nuisance; slaveholders are a nuisance, and so are slave-breeders; it is our business, nay, it is our imperative duty, to abate nuisances; we propose, therefore, with the exception of strychnine, which is the least of all these nuisances, to exterminate this catalogue from beginning to end.

    The Impending Crisis of the South: How to Meet It 1857

  • Predators, including the striped hyena, have been persecuted throughout the ecoregion by the widespread use of poisons such as strychnine because they kill livestock.

    South Saharan steppe and woodlands 2007

  • During the 1950's the development was rapid and many challenging molecules such as strychnine and morphine were made synthetically.

    The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1990 1990

  • These would establish whether Mr Williams was poisoned using a deadly toxin such as strychnine, cyanide or thallium, administered in such a way as to leave no mark visible to the naked eye.

    WHAT REALLY HAPPENED 2010

  • The minute any human or human institution arrogates to itself a singular knowledge of God, there comes into that knowledge a kind of strychnine pride, and it is as if the most animated and vital creature were instantaneously transformed into a corpse.

    unknown title 2009

  • For no particular reason I would like to remark that "strychnine" has the same number of syllables as "teamwork."

    a little pregnant 2008

  • For no particular reason I would like to remark that "strychnine" has the same number of syllables as "teamwork."

    a little pregnant 2008

  • We have with great success made a practice of not leaving arsenic and strychnine, and typhoid and tuberculosis germs lying around for our children to be destroyed by.

    Chapter 38 2010

Comments

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  • Some folks like water

    Some folks like wine

    Well I like the taste

    Of straight strychnine

    You may think it's funny

    That I like this stuff

    But once you've tried it

    You can't get enough

    Wine is red

    Poison is blue

    Strychnine is good

    For what's ailing you

    If you listen to what I say

    You'll try strychnine some day

    Make you cough it'll make you shout

    It'll even knock you out

    -The Sonics, "Strychnine"

    January 17, 2007

  • In a few minutes, the muscles start convulsing, beginning with the head and neck moving down to the back. The victim finally dies of exhaustion and paralysis of the neural pathways that control breathing. According to Wikipedia: it produces some of the most dramatic and painful symptoms of any known toxic reaction.

    August 18, 2009