Welcome to English in a Minute. Some people get their drinking water from a well, so adding
poison to it would be a terrible thing to do. But what does the idiom to poison the well mean?
My old roommate opened a new restaurant, Pat's Perfect Pizza Palace.
Oh my gosh, I'm having my birthday party there!
Bad idea! Pat was an awful roommate, so I'm sure his restaurant will be awful too.
Dan, don't poison the well! It's my birthday!
If you poison the well, you try to negatively influence how someone feels about something
or someone. It often involves trying to damage someone's reputation.
And that's English in a Minute.