密特里達提六世（Mithridates VI）或Mithridates 據說有一食譜，日日食之（微毒），久而久之可以抗他人下毒。所以後世以此義了解Mithridates，參見
http://www.answers.com/Mithridates%2C

譬如說，本周的『紐約時報雜誌』之「語言談論」專欄作者W. S.將美國聯儲局之微調政策用此比喻：
“How soon the squeeze? "At a pace that is likely to be measured." Translation: "one of these quarters, somebody (who, us?) could start restricting, but a little at a time; you won’t even feel it." Use of the adjective measured is prudence in action; it follows the policy of King Mithridates, who foiled assassins by taking a little poison at a time and "died old"; it means "nothing drastic; figure a quarter of 1 percent, or 25 basis points, pardon the expression."（Glutmanship By WILLIAM SAFIRE）
又有英詩詠之：
In A. E. Houseman’s collection of poetry titled A Shropshire Lad, there is a poem about King Mithridates and his antidote’s amazing abilities:
There was a king reigned in the East:
There, when kings will sit to feast,
They get their fill before they think
With poisoned meat and poisoned drink.
He gathered all the springs to birth
From the many-venomed earth;
First a little, thence to more,
He sampled all her killing store;
And easy, smiling, seasoned sound,
Sate the king when healths went round.
They put arsenic in his meat
And stared aghast to watch him eat;
They poured strychnine in his cup
And shook to see him drink it up:
They shook, they stared as white’s their shirt:
Them it was their poison hurt.
--I tell the tale that I heard told.
Mithridates, he died old. [6]