Venomous

• POS: Adverb
• HYPHEN: ven=om=ous

CIDE DICTIONARY

Venomous, a. [OE. venemous, venimous, F. venimeux, L. venenosus, fr. venenum poison. See Venom, and cf. Venenose.].

•  Full of venom; noxious to animal life; poisonous; as, the bite of a serpent may be venomous.  [1913 Webster]
•  Having a poison gland or glands for the secretion of venom, as certain serpents and insects.  [1913 Webster]
•  Noxious; mischievous; malignant; spiteful; as, a venomous progeny; a venomous writer.  [1913 Webster]

Venomous snake (Zoöl.), any serpent which has poison glands and fangs, whether dangerous to man or not. These serpents constitute two tribes, the viperine serpents, or Solenoglypha, and the cobralike serpents, or Proteroglypha. The former have perforated, erectile fangs situated in the front part of the upper jaw, and are without ordinary teeth behind the fangs; the latter have permanently erect and grooved fangs, with ordinary maxillary teeth behind them.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Venomous, adj.
1 a containing, secreting, or injecting venom. b (of a snake etc.) inflicting poisonous wounds by this means.
2 (of a person etc.) virulent, spiteful, malignant.

Derivative

venomously adv. venomousness n.

Etymology

ME f. OF venimeux f. venim: see VENOM

THESAURUS

Venomous

acerbic, acrid, acute, antagonistic, antipathetic, baleful, baneful, belligerent, bitter, catching, caustic, clashing, colliding, communicable, conflicting, contagious, corroding, corrosive, corrupting, corruptive, counterproductive, cutting, damaging, dangerous, deadly, deleterious, despiteful, destructive, detrimental, disadvantageous, disserviceable, distressing, drastic, embittered, envenomed, excessive, exorbitant, extravagant, extreme, fierce, full of hate, furious, great, harmful, hateful, hostile, hurtful, immoderate, infectious, infective, injurious, intemperate, intense, keen, lethal, malefic, maleficent, malevolent, malicious, malign, malignant, mean, mephitic, miasmal, miasmatic, miasmic, mischievous, noisome, noxious, ominous, outrageous, pernicious, pestiferous, pestilential, piercing, poison, poisonous, prejudicial, quarrelsome, rancorous, repugnant, rigorous, rough, savage, scatheful, set against, severe, sharp, sore, spiteful, splenetic, splitting, tough, toxic, toxicant, toxiferous, unconscionable, vehement, venenate, veneniferous, venenous, vicious, violent, viperish, viperlike, viperous, virulent, vitriolic

ROGET THESAURUS

Venomous

Badness

N badness, hurtfulness, virulence, evil doer, bane, plague spot, evil star, ill wind, hoodoo, Jonah, snake in the grass, skeleton in the closet, amari aliquid, thorn in the side, malignity, malevolence, tender mercies, ill-treatment, annoyance, molestation, abuse, oppression, persecution, outrage, misusage, injury, knockout drops, badness, peccancy, abomination, painfulness, pestilence, guilt, depravity, hurtful, harmful, scathful, baneful, baleful, injurious, deleterious, detrimental, noxious, pernicious, mischievous, full of mischief, mischief-making, malefic, malignant, nocuous, noisome, prejudicial, disserviceable, disadvantageous, wide-wasting, unlucky, sinister, obnoxious, untoward, disastrous, oppressive, burdensome, onerous, malign, corrupting &c (corrupt), virulent, venomous, envenomed, corrosive, poisonous, deadly, destructive, inauspicious, bad, ill, arrant, as bad as bad can be, dreadful, horrid, horrible, dire, rank, peccant, foul, fulsome, rotten, rotten at the core, vile, base, villainous, mean, injured, deteriorated, unsatisfactory, exceptionable indifferent, below par, illcontrived, ill-conditioned, wretched, sad, grievous, deplorable, lamentable, pitiful, pitiable, woeful, evil, wrong, depraved, shocking, reprehensible, hateful, hateful as a toad, abominable, detestable, execrable, cursed, accursed, confounded, damned, damnable, infernal, diabolic, unadvisable, unprofitable, incompetent, irremediable, badly, wrong, ill, to one's cost, where the shoe pinches, bad is the best: the worst come to the worst, herba mala presto cresco, wrongs unredressed or insults unavenged.

Insalubrity

N insalubrity, unhealthiness, nonnaturals, plague spot, malaria, death in the pot, contagion, toxicity, insalubrious, unhealthy, unwholesome, noxious, noisome, morbific, morbiferous, mephitic, septic, azotic, deleterious, pestilent, pestiferous, pestilential, virulent, venomous, envenomed, poisonous, toxic, toxiferous, teratogenic, narcotic, contagious, infectious, catching, taking, epidemic, zymotic, epizootic, innutritious, indigestible, ungenial, uncongenial, deadly.

Discourtesy

N discourtesy, ill breeding, ill manners, bad manners, ungainly manners, insuavity, uncourteousness rusticity, inurbanity, illiberality, incivility displacency, disrespect, procacity, impudence: barbarism, barbarity, misbehavior, brutality, blackguardism, conduct unbecoming a gentleman, grossieret_e, brusquerie, vulgarity, churlishness, spinosity, perversity, moroseness, sternness, austerity, moodishness, captiousness, cynicism, tartness, acrimony, acerbity, virulence, asperity, scowl, black looks, frown, short answer, rebuff, hard words, contumely, unparliamentary language, personality, bear, bruin, brute, blackguard, beast, unlicked cub, frump, crosspatch, saucebox, crooked stick, grizzly, discourteous, uncourteous, uncourtly, ill-bred, ill-mannered, ill-behaved, ill-conditioned, unbred, unmannerly, unmannered, impolite, unpolite, unpolished, uncivilized, ungenteel, ungentleman-like, ungentlemanly, unladylike, blackguard, vulgar, dedecorous, foul- mouthed foul-spoken, abusive, uncivil, ungracious, unceremonious, cool, pert, forward, obtrusive, impudent, rude, saucy, precocious, repulsive, uncomplaisant, unaccommodating, unneighborly, ungallant, inaffable, ungentle, ungainly, rough, rugged, bluff, blunt, gruff, churlish, boorish, bearish, brutal, brusque, stern, harsh, austere, cavalier, taint, sour, crabbed, sharp, short, trenchant, sarcastic, biting, doggish, caustic, virulent, bitter, acrimonious, venomous, contumelious, snarling, surly, surly as a bear, perverse, grim, sullen, peevish, untactful, impolitic, undiplomatic, artless, discourteously, with discourtesy, with a bad grace.

Malevolence

N malevolence, bad intent, bad intention, unkindness, diskindness, ill nature, ill will, ill blood, bad blood, enmity, hate, malignity, malice, malice prepense, maliciousness, spite, despite, resentment, uncharitableness, incompassionateness, gall, venom, rancor, rankling, virulence, mordacity, acerbity churlishness, hardness of heart, heart of stone, obduracy, cruelty, cruelness, brutality, savagery, ferity, ferocity, barbarity, inhumanity, immanity, truculence, ruffianism, evil eye, cloven foot, torture, vivisection, ill turn, bad turn, affront, outrage, atrocity, ill usage, intolerance, persecution, tender mercies, unkindest cut of all, malevolent, unbenevolent, unbenign, ill-disposed, ill-intentioned, ill-natured, ill-conditioned, ill-contrived, evil-minded, evil- disposed, black-browed, malicious, malign, malignant, rancorous, despiteful, spiteful, mordacious, caustic, bitter, envenomed, acrimonious, virulent, unamiable, uncharitable, maleficent, venomous, grinding, galling, harsh, disobliging, unkind, unfriendly, ungracious, inofficious, invidious, uncandid, churlish, surly, sullen, cold, cold-blooded, cold-hearted, black-hearted, hard-hearted, flint-hearted, marble-hearted, stony-hearted, hard of heart, unnatural, ruthless, relentless, cruel, brutal, brutish, savage, savage as a bear, savage as a tiger, ferine, ferocious, inhuman, barbarous, barbaric, semibarbaric, fell, untamed, tameless, truculent, incendiary, bloodthirsty, atrocious, bloodyminded, fiendish, fiendlike, demoniacal, diabolic, diabolical, devilish, infernal, hellish, Satanic, Tartaran, malevolently, with bad intent, cruel as death, hard unkindness' alter'd eye, homo homini lupus, mala mens, malus animus, rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind, sharp-tooth'd unkindness.