Phrase guide

name one's poison

verb · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

verb

Meaning 1

To indicate what type of alcoholic beverage one wishes to be served.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: idiomatic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From the US prohibition era, when the government required that the base ingredients for many products have poisons added to them to make it harder for them to be distilled into alcohol. As a result, much of the prohibition alcohol was actually poison when not distilled completely or properly.