gateway drug

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

gateway drug (plural gateway drugs)

1. An addictive substance that is seen as relatively harmless by itself, but is believed to encourage the user to experiment with more harmful substances.
2. (by extension, figurative) Any thing or area of interest that tends to lead to deeper involvement.
   • 2014, Dave Fancher, Book of F#: Breaking Free with Managed Functional Programming, page XX:

     It has been said that LINQ is a gateway drug for functional programming

   • 2019, Emily Padraic, Under My Skin, page 3:

     Darn you, Downton Abbey, for being the gateway drug for all things BBC.

Translations

substance believed to encourage the user to experiment with more harmful substances

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 入門毒品／入门毒品 (rùmén dúpǐn)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: porttihuume (fi)
• German: Einstiegsdroge (de) f
• Hungarian: kapudrog
• Portuguese: droga de entrada f
• Russian: шлюз (ru) m (šljuz), ста́ртовый нарко́тик m (stártovyj narkótik), перехо́дный нарко́тик m (perexódnyj narkótik), ключево́й нарко́тик m (ključevój narkótik) (no idiomatic translation exists)
• Spanish: droga iniciática f

thing that tends to lead to deeper involvement

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: portti (fi)

Further reading

• gateway drug effect on Wikipedia.Wikipedia