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Drug vs Convulsant - What's the difference?

drug | convulsant |

As nouns the difference between drug and convulsant

is that drug is (pharmacology) a substance used to treat an illness, relieve a symptom, or modify a chemical process in the body for a specific purpose or drug can be (obsolete) a drudge while convulsant is an agent, such as a drug, that causes convulsions; a convulsant agent.

As a verb drug

is to administer intoxicating drugs to, generally without the recipient's knowledge or consent or drug can be (drag).

As an adjective convulsant is

causing or producing convulsions; convulsive.

drug

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • (pharmacology) 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.
  • * Milton
  • whence merchants bring their spicy drugs
  • A psychoactive substance, especially one which is illegal and addictive, ingested for recreational use, such as cocaine.
  • * 1971 , , Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas , Harper Perennial 2005 edition, 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 0976705605, 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.
  • 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.
  • Any commodity that lies on hand, or is not salable; an article of slow sale, or in no demand.
  • * Fielding
  • But sermons are mere drugs .
  • * Dryden
  • And virtue shall a drug become.
    Usage notes
    * Adjectives often used with "drug": dangerous, illicit, illegal, psychoactive, generic, hard, veterinary, recreational
    Synonyms
    * See also
    Derived terms
    * antidrug * blockbuster drug * club drug * counterdrug * date rape drug * designer drug * disease modifying drug * dissociative drug * do drugs * drug abuse * drug addict * drug baron * drug dealer * drug dog * drug of choice * drug on the market * drug test * drug-ridden * drugfree * druggist * druggie * drugless * druglord * drugstore * drugtaker * drugtaking * druggy * fertility drug * gateway drug * love drug * multidrug * nondrug * on drugs * orphan drug * polydrug * postdrug * prescription drug * prodrug * recreational drug * small molecule drug * street drug * wonderdrug

    Verb

    (drugg)
  • 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 .
  • To add intoxicating drugs to with the intention of drugging someone.
  • She suddenly felt strange. She realized her drink must have been drugged .
  • To prescribe or administer drugs or medicines.
  • (Ben Jonson)

    Etymology 2

    Germanic ablaut formation, cognate with (etyl) droeg, (etyl) trug, (etyl) drog, (etyl) .

    Verb

    (head)
  • (drag)
  • You look like someone drug you behind a horse for half a mile.
  • * 2005 , Diane Wilson, An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers (ISBN 1603580417), 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.
    Usage notes
    * Random House says that and Oxford make no mention of this word.

    Etymology 3

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A drudge.
  • * William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens
  • 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 riot

    convulsant

    English

    Adjective

    (head)
  • Causing or producing convulsions; convulsive.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • An agent, such as a drug, that causes convulsions; a convulsant agent.