gateway drug

English

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.

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