Meaning of drug in English

drug

noun [ C ]

/drʌɡ/ us

/drʌɡ/

drug noun [C] (MEDICINE)

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

anti-cancer/fertility/pain-killing drugs

prescription drug We may need to try a prescription drug to treat your migraines if regular paracetamol is not working.

take a drug He takes several drugs for his condition.

Are you currently taking any drugs?

drug therapy

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The new drug could be an important step in the fight against cancer.
There are doubts about the effectiveness of the new drug in treating the disease.
For patients who do not respond to drug treatment, surgery is a possible option.
The doctors gave him more powerful drugs in the vain hope that he might recover.
I can give you stronger pain-killing drugs if these aren't strong enough.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Medicine in different forms

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drug noun [C] (ILLEGAL SUBSTANCE)

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:

recreational drug

illegal drug

drug addict His father was a drug addict.

drug addiction She was in treatment for drug addiction.

drug dealer He was a small-time drug dealer.

drug dealing The government cracked down on street drug dealing.

drug abuse She has a history of drug abuse.

drug overdose His son died of a drug overdose.

take drugs She didn't drink or take drugs.

do drugs informal They don't drink, smoke, or do drugs.

on drugs She began to suspect that her son was on drugs.

any activity that you cannot stop doing:

Work is a drug for him.

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The government are to step up their attempt to wage war on drugs.
"I'm arresting you on suspicion of illegally possessing drugs, " said the police officer.
The athlete was given a stiff punishment for using drugs.
Police found a small quantity of drugs in his possession.
Desperate measures are needed to deal with the growing drug problem.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Drugs - general words

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Passionate or passing interests

Addiction

drug

verb [ T ]

/drʌɡ/ us

/drʌɡ/

-gg-

to give a person or animal a chemical that causes them to lose feeling, change their behaviour, or become unconscious:

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

He admitted to drugging horses during his racing career.

She was heavily drugged to ease the pain.

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

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Drugs - general words

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Medicines & drugs: administering drugs & medicines

(Definition of drug from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

drug | American Dictionary

drug

noun

/drʌɡ/

drug noun (MEDICINE)

Add to word list Add to word list

[ C ]

any chemical that is used as a medicine:

over-the-counter/prescription drugs

drug noun (ILLEGAL SUBSTANCE)

[ C/U ]

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

drug

verb [ T ]

/drʌɡ/

-gg-

drug verb [T] (GIVE MEDICINE)

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.

(Definition of drug from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

drug | Business English

drug

noun [ C ]

/drʌɡ/ us

Add to word list Add to word list

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.

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.

See also

prescription drug

(Definition of drug from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of drug

drug

The nearer that this model is approached, the more successful a purely quantitative approach will be, as in drug trials.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These regulations and requirements have a major impact on the research and development of new drugs.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Indeed, patients were often reluctant to be prescribed a detoxification drug which had not led to them successfully achieving abstinence in the past.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Controlled drugs represent 'the final barrier' and it should be removed.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These improvements could also complement and even enhance the benefits of drugs that help with the symptoms of dementia.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This research falls under two main themes (i) assessing the societal value of orphan drugs and (ii) funding the development and use of orphan drugs.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These and other new drugs substantially increased the costs for cytostatic drugs during the 1990s.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Many patients need to take several different drugs for single or multiple conditions with an increasing chance of suffering harmful interactions or side effects.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

A number of suggestions were given to improve the information about new drugs.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

It is not sufficient for physicians just to give drugs and to do examinations.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In the following we highlight information on the molecular targets and actions of two classes of drugs, psychostimulants and opiates.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The first risk is mistakenly recommending widespread use of the drug, when the drug is not truly effective.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The cost of devices is such that, unlike drug samples, they can rarely be supplied free in clinical trials.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The intervention cost includes costs for the drug, travel/time, and physician visits.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Three-fourths were direct costs for inpatient care, acute outpatient care, physician visits for followup treatment, drugs, and so on.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of drug

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with drug

drug

These are words often used in combination with drug.

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addictive drug

Nicotine is an addictive drug.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

anti-cancer drug

Studies have shown that it acts as an anti-cancer drug with both colorectal and ovarian tumours.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

anti-inflammatory drug

Diclofenac is a common anti-inflammatory drug administered to livestock.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

See all collocations with drug

What is the pronunciation of drug?

Translations of drug

in Chinese (Traditional)

藥, 藥，藥物，藥品, 非法物質…

Meaning of drug in English

drug noun [C] (MEDICINE)

drug noun [C] (ILLEGAL SUBSTANCE)

drug | American Dictionary

drug noun (MEDICINE)

drug noun (ILLEGAL SUBSTANCE)

drug verb [T] (GIVE MEDICINE)

drug | Business English

Examples of drug

Collocations with drug

drug

Translations of drug

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