poison pill

noun

: a financial tactic or provision used by a company to make an unwanted takeover prohibitively expensive or less desirable

Examples of poison pill in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web If Republicans move ahead with political amendments or measures that weaken the bill, known as poison pills, the minority party won't provide the votes when Johnson needs them, according to roughly a dozen Democrats familiar with the situation. Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, arkansasonline.com, 19 Apr. 2024 The outlet reported that Yao was accused of giving Yao a bottle with 30 probiotic pills and one poison pill. Liam Quinn, Peoplemag, 5 Apr. 2024 Littering appropriations bills with culture-war poison pills — as House Republicans had done in versions of spending legislation last year — would have doomed its chances of passage. Jacob Bogage, Washington Post, 8 Mar. 2024 Every now and then, science serves up poison pills. Kc Cole, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Mar. 2024 That comes with a backside poison pill of potentially losing their franchise quarterback via free agency in 2025. Clarence E. Hill Jr., Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 27 Feb. 2024 His poison pill restriction already complicates matters. Sean Keeler, The Denver Post, 5 Feb. 2024 Woolf’s friend and sometime lover Vita Sackville-West and Vita’s husband, Harold Nicolson (a government official who was on the list), both carried poison pills for the day the Germans landed. Claudia Roth Pierpont, The New Yorker, 19 Feb. 2024 The bill, though, contained a poison pill: In order to send the Middle East nation additional funds, Biden would have to gut new funding for the Internal Revenue Service. Erin B. Logan, Los Angeles Times, 29 Nov. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'poison pill.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1983, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of poison pill was in 1983

Dictionary Entries Near poison pill

Cite this Entry

“Poison pill.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/poison%20pill. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.

Legal Definition

poison pill

noun
poi·​son pill
: a financial tactic or provision used by a company to make an unwanted takeover prohibitively expensive or less desirable
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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