mindmap root((毒药)) poison is applicable to any deadly or noxious substance （such as strychnine, arsenic, or carbon monoxide） or to anything felt to have a comparable effect: a friendship destroyed by the ~ of jealousy. venom applies to a poison-containing fluid secreted by an animal such as snake, bee, or spider and injected into another animal in defensive or predatory action; it may also imply a malignant hostility: a review full of ~. virus applies to what is felt to have a corrupting quality poisonous to mind and spirit: the ~ of apathy; or to a submicroscopic agent of infection working with insidious deadliness or destructiveness: the ~ that caused AIDS. toxin denotes a complex organic poison produced by a living organism, especially a bacterial or virus: the ~s causing the plague; it may also imply an insidious undermining effect like that of a bacterial toxin: a nation undermined by the ~ of ethnic divisiveness. bane may apply to any cause of ruin, destruction, or tribulation: the ~ of his existence.