How to Use poison pill in a Sentence

poison pill

noun
  • But passing it is a poison pill as well.
    — Ashish Valentine, NPR, 22 Jan. 2026
  • Supporters of the project likened the ruling to a poison pill.
    — cleveland, 4 Apr. 2022
  • That’s getting creative, for sure,’’ Birk said of the poison pill.
    — Chris Tomasson, Twin Cities, 1 Dec. 2019
  • Lewin slipped the poison pill into her mouth, but the assailants choked her and removed the capsule.
    — Joshua Hammer, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Dec. 2024
  • Trudeau said at a news conference in response to a question about whether the clause was a poison pill for the talks.
    — Fortune, 13 Oct. 2017
  • Money in politics has been a poison pill for the democracy in our city.
    — Destiny Torres, Orange County Register, 4 Oct. 2024
  • First, the plan crucially includes a poison pill that may stop the deal from advancing very far.
    — Time, 28 Jan. 2020
  • Some saw it as a poison pill, but in the end the entire GOP caucus went along.
    — Kevin Diaz, Houston Chronicle, 7 Jan. 2018
  • For a school hoping to educate 20 students, this was a poison pill.
    — Michael McShane, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2025
  • If enough shareholders agree, Musk could use that as leverage to get the board to drop the poison pill defense.
    — Tom Krisher, Chicago Tribune, 21 Apr. 2022
  • The poison pill and the board’s reluctance to engage with him means the next step is a formal tender offer.
    — Abram Brown, Forbes, 21 Apr. 2022
  • There are several poison pill proposals still on the table that could doom the entire deal.
    — Ana Swanson, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2017
  • Icahn's letter noted that Schechter had voted against the poison pill.
    — oregonlive, 6 Aug. 2021
  • The terms of the poison pill adopted by Twitter carried another one, as well.
    — Anne Sraders, Fortune, 30 Apr. 2022
  • After pushback, Democrats removed the poison pill amendments last month.
    — Jack Birle, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 1 July 2024
  • Twitter at first moved to ward off Musk, adopting a poison pill defense meant to make any takeover attempt costly.
    — Abram Brown, Forbes, 25 Apr. 2022
  • The poison pill adopted by Twitter, for example, expires in one year.
    — Tuugi Chuluun, The Conversation, 18 Apr. 2022
  • Rumors swirled that the astronauts had poison pills tucked away in case of a hopeless situation.
    — Marcia Dunn, The Christian Science Monitor, 12 Apr. 2020
  • What would be the point of trying mere trigger-pullers, when the masterminds had already bit down on poison pills, swung from the noose or been locked away?
    — Henry Leutwyler Robert Petkoff Emma Kehlbeck Quinton Kamara, New York Times, 20 May 2025
  • Twitter’s board went from installing a poison pill to agreeing to the sale to Elon Musk in just 11 days.
    — New York Times, 15 July 2022
  • That school spirit dies at The Beltway where power struggles and poison pills sack bills before the snap.
    — Michael Casagrande | [email protected], al, 17 July 2023
  • As part of the deal disclosures, Xerox for the first time published the full joint venture agreements—the poison pill.
    — Shawn Tully, Fortune, 21 May 2018
  • The poison pill plan would take effect if anyone buys 15% or more of the company’s stock without the approval of the board.
    — Michael Kan, PCMAG, 18 Apr. 2022
  • The poison pill was seen as a stop-gap measure to prevent Musk from purchasing the social media platform.
    — NBC News, 26 Apr. 2022
  • The poison pill, of course, did not prevent the board from striking a deal with Musk in direct negotiations.
    — Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica, 25 Apr. 2022
  • As a result, the poison pill would risk diluting Musk’s current stake in the company, which is at 9%.
    — Michael Kan, PCMAG, 18 Apr. 2022
  • The poison pill only goes into effect if Musk takes more than a 15 percent stake in the company.
    — Washington Post, 15 Apr. 2022
  • The poison pill isn’t the only strategy Twitter is using to counter Musk’s offer.
    — Will Daniel, Fortune, 15 Apr. 2022
  • If Twitter’s board wants to get rid of Musk’s meddling, that may be the most appealing option, and the poison pill could be the tool to do it.
    — Alex Weprin, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 Apr. 2022
  • But the measure, paired with what Democrats see as a poison pill on noncitizen voting, faces headwinds in the lower chamber.
    — Kaia Hubbard, CBS News, 18 Sep. 2024

Some of 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.

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