spike
カナダのネット上でブラック・ウィドウと呼ばれている老人が釈放されました。彼女の名前はMelissa Ann Shepardで,オンラインデートサイトを通じて独身老人に近づいて,財産を得ようとしておりました。
記事の中で気になった単語は"spike"です。『Wisdom英和辞典第三版』（三省堂）で調べると,「〘くだけて〙＜飲み物＞に強いアルコール[麻薬など]を （こっそりと）加える」などという意味がありました。記事には"spiking her new partner's coffee with sedatives"や"spiking his ice cream"などの表現で使われております。飲み物や食べ物に薬品を盛っていることが伝わります。Oxford Dictionaries.comには"Add alcohol or a drug to contaminate (drink or food) surreptitiously"と定義されております。恐ろしい犯行であると思いました。（Ume）
The internet black widow: Is this Canada's most dangerous woman?
This week she was released after two years, nine months and 10 days in jail for spiking the coffee of a new partner, Fred Weeks, her neighbour in a quiet retirement community in Nova Scotia. According to court documents, she knocked on his door and told him she was lonely, and she'd heard he was lonely too.
The couple had a civil union ceremony in his living room, and although the marriage was reportedly never certified, they went off on honeymoon to Newfoundland. Prosecutors said Shepard gave Weeks heavy doses of sedatives during the journey, leaving him unable to distinguish between the reverse and drive gears in his car, and to start the vehicle when they were disembarking from a ferry.
