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fly agaric
noun
: a medium to large poisonous amanita mushroom (Amanita muscaria) with a usually bright red cap
Examples of fly agaric in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Among the more celebrated examples of this phenomenon are Siberian reindeer, which partake in the consumption of the fly agaric mushroom, a hallucogenic.
—Gary Laderman, Fortune Well, 17 July 2023
Meanwhile, muscimol, the active ingredient in the Amanita muscaria, or fly agaric fungus, so well attested in traditional religious practices throughout Eurasia, is legal in 49 states, and common, alongside cannabis, in the dispensaries of New York.
—Justin E. H. Smith, WIRED, 7 Mar. 2023
With appearances ranging from Alice in Wonderland to Super Mario, no psychoactive fungus is as iconic as Amanita muscaria, the fly agaric mushroom.
—Troy Farah, Discover Magazine, 16 Oct. 2018
Many folks are familiar with this fungus, with its distinctive firetruck-red cap speckled by white dots, called the fly agaric or Amanita muscaria.
—Troy Farah, Discover Magazine, 21 July 2021
At left, one such toxin: a fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) from the Thuringian forest in Germany.
—Discover Magazine, 13 Nov. 2013
My favorites are fly agaric mushrooms, with white stalks and bright red tops.
—National Geographic, 5 Nov. 2020
Historians have long assumed that fly agaric, a hallucinogenic mushroom, was the berserkers’ drug of choice.
—National Geographic, 11 Feb. 2020
One of the more hotly contested hypotheses is that the berserkers ingested a hallucinogenic mushroom (Amanita muscaria), commonly known as fly agaric, just before battle to induce their trancelike state.
—Jennifer Ouellette, Wired, 21 Sep. 2019
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fly agaric.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1788, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near fly agaric
Cite this Entry
“Fly agaric.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fly%20agaric. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
Medical Definition
fly agaric
noun
: a poisonous mushroom of the genus Amanita (A. muscaria) that has a variably colored but typically bright-red pileus with a warty white scurf on the surface that with the related death cap is responsible for most cases of severe mushroom poisoning, that has been used as a source of poison for flypaper, and that is extensively used chiefly in northeastern Asia as an intoxicant especially for the hallucinatory effects that it produces
called also fly amanita, fly mushroom
More from Merriam-Webster on fly agaric
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about fly agaric
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