The difference between Poison and Pollute

When used as verbs, poison means to use poison to kill or paralyse somebody, whereas pollute means to make something harmful, especially by the addition of some unwanted product.


Poison is also noun with the meaning: a substance that is harmful or lethal to a living organism.

Pollute is also adjective with the meaning: polluted.

check bellow for the other definitions of Poison and Pollute

  1. Poison as a noun:

    A substance that is harmful or lethal to a living organism.

    Examples:

    "We used a poison to kill the weeds."

  2. Poison as a noun:

    Something that harms a person or thing.

    Examples:

    "Gossip is a malicious poison."

  3. Poison as a noun (informal):

    A drink; liquor.

    Examples:

    "— What's your poison?"

    "— I'll have a glass of whisky."

  1. Poison as a verb (transitive):

    To use poison to kill or paralyse somebody

    Examples:

    "The assassin poisoned the king."

  2. Poison as a verb (transitive):

    To pollute; to cause some part of the environment to become poisonous

    Examples:

    "That factory is poisoning the river."

  3. Poison as a verb (transitive):

    To cause something to become much worse

    Examples:

    "Suspicion will poison their relationship."

    "He poisoned the mood in the room with his non-stop criticism."

  4. Poison as a verb (transitive):

    To cause someone to hate or to have unfair negative opinions

    Examples:

    "She's poisoned him against all his old friends."

  1. Pollute as a verb (transitive):

    To make something harmful, especially by the addition of some unwanted product.

    Examples:

    "The factory polluted the river when it cleaned its tanks."

  2. Pollute as a verb (transitive):

    To make something or somewhere less suitable for some activity, especially by the introduction of some unnatural factor.

    Examples:

    "The lights from the stadium polluted the night sky, and we couldn't see the stars."

  3. Pollute as a verb (dated):

    To corrupt or profane

  4. Pollute as a verb:

    To violate sexually; to debauch; to dishonour.

  1. Pollute as an adjective (rare):

    Polluted; defiled.