different between venomous vs caustic

English

Etymology

From Middle English venemous, venymous, from Anglo-Norman venimus, from venin. Cf. Latin ven?n?sus. Equivalent to venom +? -ous.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?v?n?m?s/

Adjective

venomous (comparative more venomous, superlative most venomous)

1. Full of venom.

2. Toxic; poisonous.
   • c. 1515–1516, published 1568, John Skelton, Again?t venemous tongues enpoy?oned with ?claunder and fal?e detractions &c.:

     More venemous and much more virulent
     Then any poy?oned tode, or any ?erpent.

3. Noxious; evil.
4. Malignant; spiteful; hateful.

5. Producing venom (a toxin usually injected into an enemy or prey by biting or stinging) in glands or accumulating venom from food.

6. powerful

Usage notes

See poisonous#Usage notes.

Synonyms

• noxious
• poisonous
• toxic

Antonyms

• non-venomous

Translations

References

• “venomous” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• venomous in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Etymology

From the Latin causticus (“burning”), from the Ancient Greek ????????? (kaustikós, “burning”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: kôs't?k, k?s't?k, IPA^(key): /?k??st?k/, /?k?st?k/
• Rhymes: -??st?k

Adjective

caustic (comparative more caustic, superlative most caustic)

1. Capable of burning, corroding or destroying organic tissue.
2. (of language, etc.) Sharp, bitter, cutting, biting, and sarcastic in a scathing way.
   • 1853, Charlotte Brontë, Villette

     Madame Beck esteemed me learned and blue; Miss Fanshawe, caustic, ironic, and cynical

   • c. 1930, W.H.Auden, "The Quest"

     though he came too late / To join the martyrs, there was still a place / Among the tempters for a caustic tongue / / To test the resolution of the young / With tales of the small failings of the great

Synonyms

• (capable of destroying tissue): acidic, biting, burning, corrosive, searing
• (severe, sharp): bitchy, biting, catty, mordacious, nasty, sarcastic, scathing, sharp, spiteful, vitriolic

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

caustic (plural caustics)

1. Any substance or means which, applied to animal or other organic tissue, burns, corrodes, or destroys it by chemical action; an escharotic.
2. (optics, computer graphics) The envelope of reflected or refracted rays of light for a given surface or object.
3. (mathematics) The envelope of reflected or refracted rays for a given curve.
4. (informal, chemistry) Caustic soda.

Derived terms

• lunar caustic

Translations