Skip to content

empoisonner

poison

verb ahm-pwah-zoh-NEH Less Common

Also means

ruin

Usage Note

Empoisonner means to literally poison, but also informally to make life difficult for someone: tu m'empoisonnes la vie! (you're making my life miserable!). Reflexively, s'empoisonner means to poison oneself or, colloquially, to go to a lot of bother over something. It is derived from poison.

Examples

"Quelqu'un a tenté d'empoisonner le chef."

Natural Translation

Someone tried to poison the chef.

Explore French by topic