Definition of "opium" []

• A bitter, yellowish-brown, strongly addictive narcotic drug prepared from the dried juice of unripe pods of the opium poppy and containing alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, and papaverine. (noun)
• Something that numbs or stupefies. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "It was difficult to believe that his subjection to opium could much longer resist the stings of his own conscience, and the solicitations of his friends, as well as the pecuniary destitution to which his _opium habits_ had reduced him."
• "He was this actor who went out and partied all night, went to bed with three women at once and he hung out in opium dens, and places like that."
• "If we start buying up the opium from the farmers and burning it, then the supply of opium on the black market falls and so the price goes up."