| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| venom |
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| SYLLABICATION: | ven·om |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  v n  m |
| NOUN: | 1. A poisonous secretion of an animal, such as a snake, spider, or scorpion, usually transmitted by a bite or sting. 2. A poison. 3. Malice; spite: “They dislike making their just criticism of a useful and earnest man an excuse for a general discharge of venom from small-minded opponents” (W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk 1903). | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English venim, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *ven men, from Latin ven num, poison. See wen-1 in Appendix I.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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