drug

Etymology 1

From Middle English drogge (“medicine”), from Old French drogue, drocque (“tincture, pharmaceutical product”), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German droge, as in droge vate (“dry vats, dry barrels”), mistaking droge for the contents, which were usually dried herbs, plants or wares. Droge comes from Middle Dutch drōghe (“dry”), from Old Dutch drōgi (“dry”), from Proto-Germanic *draugiz (“dry, hard”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ- (“to strengthen; become hard or solid”), from *dʰer- (“to hold, hold fast, support”). Cognate with English dry, Dutch droog (“dry”), German trocken (“dry”).

noun

1. (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.
2. A psychoactive substance, especially one which is illegal and addictive, ingested for recreational use, such as cocaine.
   take drugs
   she used to be a drug addict
   We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. 1971, Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Harper Perennial, published 2005, page 3
   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. March 1991, unknown student, "Antihero opinion", SPIN, page 70
   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. 2005, Thomas Brent Andrews, The Pot Plan: Louie B. Stumblin and the War on Drugs, Chronic Discontent Books, page 19
3. Anything, such as a substance, emotion, or action, to which one is addicted.
   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 […] 2005, Jack Haas, Om, Baby!: a Pilgrimage to the Eternal Self, 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. 2009, Niki Flynn, Dances with Werewolves, page 8
   2010, Kesha Rose Sebert (Ke$ha), with Pebe Sebert and Joshua Coleman (Ammo), Your Love is My Drug
   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. 2011, Joslyn Shy, Introducing the Truth, page 5
4. Any commodity that lies on hand, or is not salable; an article of slow sale, or in no demand.
   And virtue shall a drug become. 1685, John Dryden, Albion and Albanius
5. (Canada, US, informal) Short for drugstore.

verb

1. (transitive) 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.
2. (transitive) To add intoxicating drugs to with the intention of drugging someone.
   She suddenly felt strange. She realized her drink must have been drugged.
3. (intransitive) To prescribe or administer drugs or medicines.

Etymology 2

Germanic ablaut formation. If old, a doublet of drew, from Proto-Germanic *drōg; compare Dutch droeg, German trug, Swedish drog. If secondary, probably formed by analogy with hang.

verb

1. (dialect) simple past and past participle of drag
   You look like someone drug you behind a horse for half a mile.
   look what the cat drug in
   […] their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in. 1961, Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron
   When Blackburn called, I drug the telephone cord twenty feet out of the office and sat on the cord while I talked with him. 2005, Diane Wilson, An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, page 193
   It's about time you drug it home, Jeff! Aug 13 2009, Tom Armstrong, Marvin (comic)

Etymology 3

noun

1. (obsolete) A drudge.