- antidote
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/an"ti doht'/, n., v., antidoted, antidoting.n.1. a medicine or other remedy for counteracting the effects of poison, disease, etc.2. something that prevents or counteracts injurious or unwanted effects: Good jobs are the best antidote to teenage crime.v.t.3. to counteract with an antidote: Medication was given to antidote the poison the child had swallowed.[1400-50; late ME ( < MF) < L antidotum < Gk antídoton something given against (i.e., for counteracting), equiv. to anti- ANTI- + dotón neut. of dotós given, verbid of didónai to give; akin to DATUM]
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Administered by mouth, intravenously, or sometimes on the skin, it may work by directly neutralizing the poison; causing an opposite effect in the body; binding to the poison to prevent its absorption, inactivate it, or keep it from fitting a receptor at its site of action; or binding to a receptor to prevent the poison's binding there, blocking its action. Some poisons are not active until converted to a different form in the body; their antidotes interrupt that conversion.* * *
▪ chemical agentRemedy to counteract the effects of a poison or toxin. Administered by mouth, intravenously, or sometimes on the skin, it may work by directly neutralizing the poison; causing an opposite effect in the body; binding to the poison to prevent its absorption, inactivate it, or keep it from fitting a receptor at its site of action; or binding to a receptor to prevent the poison's binding there, blocking its action. Some poisons are not active until converted to a different form in the body; their antidotes interrupt that conversion.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
