Let this, Englishmen, be a leſſon to you; throw from you the doctrine of equality, as you would the poiſoned chalice. Wherever this deteſtable principle gains ground to any extent, ruin muſt inevitably enſue.

You need not, therefore, be surprised to hear of the vigorous blockade of the Chesapeake and Hampton Roads, and of the ports of seceded States, and that if these States erect batteries at Memphis or Vicksburgh to intercept the commerce of the Mississippi, that measures of stern retaliation or resistance will be inaugurated by the Government, to force the poisoned chalice to the lips of those who first drugged it.

The great spiritual visions of human history have also been poisoned chalices, the causes of untold misery and even savagery.

His Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's] role last year in persuading Ayatollah [Ruhollah] Khomeini to agree a Gulf War ceasefire – a decision the imam likened "to drinking from a poisoned chalice" – enhanced his reputation for pragmatism.

The CPA [Coalition Provisional Authority] left the Interim Government with two unresolved crises that were more akin to poisoned chalices.

It is why the question of whether Labour should have accepted the support of his Rupert Murdoch's] media empire as a gift, or spurned it as a poisoned chalice, retains a certain relevance.

Poisoned chalice

Meaning

Noun

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