lead poisoning

[ led ]

noun

1. Pathology.
   1. a toxic condition produced by ingestion, inhalation, or skin absorption of lead or lead compounds, resulting in various dose-related symptoms including anemia, nausea, muscle weakness, confusion, blindness, and coma.
   2. Also called plumbism, saturnism. this condition occurring in adults whose work involves contact with lead products.
2. Slang. death or injury inflicted by a bullet or shot.

lead poisoning

/ lɛd /

noun

1. Also calledplumbismsaturnism acute or chronic poisoning by lead or its salts, characterized by abdominal pain, vomiting, convulsions, and coma
2. slang.
   death or injury resulting from being shot with bullets

Word History and Origins

Origin of lead poisoning¹

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

Ever since publishing the textbook Dumping in Dixie in 1990, the first of his 18 books, he’s been teaching students and many others that racism can show up in dirty water, lead poisoning, and polluted air.

From Vox

If the lead poisoning continues, the victim can eventually die, typically from kidney failure.

From Popular-Science

She was tapped in 2019 to lead the city’s effort to curb childhood lead poisoning.

From Time

Many California condors died of lead poisoning after swallowing pellets or bullets lodged by hunters in the carcasses of their favorite prey, and by the late 1960s, only a few dozen birds remained.

From Washington Post

Few reports of his mental illness discuss lead poisoning as a possible reason for his mental deterioration.

From The Daily Beast

Perhaps this, not lead poisoning, is the reason for the fall of the Roman Empire.

From The Daily Beast

Lead poisoning, for instance, may very well occur in others than those engaged directly in the manufacture or handling of lead.

From Project Gutenberg

It matters not so very much, except to the angler, if the river does suffer from lead-poisoning.

From Project Gutenberg

Then the former symptoms returned, she was seized with convulsions, and died in two days of acute lead poisoning.

From Project Gutenberg

Before she was nineteen she showed symptoms of lead poisoning—had fits, frothed at the mouth, and died.

From Project Gutenberg

She was employed as an enamelled ware brusher, wherein lead poisoning is encountered.

From Project Gutenberg