gateway drug

English

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Noun

gateway drug (plural gateway drugs)

  1. (idiomatic) A typically legal or less harmful substance, such as marijuana, whose use is statistically associated with an increased likelihood of progressing to a more dangerous or illicit drug.
  2. (by extension, figurative) Any thing or area of interest that tends to lead to a 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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