Epidemic
[epɪ'demɪk] or [,ɛpɪ'dɛmɪk]
Definition
(noun.) a widespread outbreak of an infectious disease; many people are infected at the same time.
(adj.) (especially of medicine) of disease or anything resembling a disease; attacking or affecting many individuals in a community or a population simultaneously; 'an epidemic outbreak of influenza' .
Typed by Laverne--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Alt. of Epidemical
(n.) An epidemic disease.
(n.) Anything which takes possession of the minds of people as an epidemic does of their bodies; as, an epidemic of terror.
Checked by Ernest
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. General, prevailing, prevalent, pandemic.
Editor: Vicky
Definition
adj. affecting a community at a certain time: general.—n. Epidem′ic a disease falling on great numbers in one place simultaneously or in succession.—adv. Epidem′ically.—n. Epidemiol′ogy the science of epidemics.
Typed by Adele
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of an epidemic, signifies prostration of mental faculties and worry from distasteful tasks. Contagion among relatives or friends is foretold by dreams of this nature.
Typist: Sharif
Examples
- He looked like a walking-West-Indian-epidemic. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- America had also received the taint; and, were it yellow fever or plague, the epidemic was gifted with a virulence before unfelt. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Gibbon couples the Justinian epidemic with the great comet of 531, and with the very frequent and serious earthquakes of that reign. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Gregory, let me recommend to your attention this singular epidemic among the sheep. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- Homesickness was abroad in the ship--it was epidemic. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- Epidemic diseases, I believed, were often heralded by a gasping, sobbing, tormented, long-lamenting east wind. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- But the grand question was still unsettled of how this epidemic was generated and increased. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Having adjusted such spectacles the Commission proceeded to look at this curse which is more blasting than any plague or epidemic, at an evil which spells only ruin to the race. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- It was called an epidemic. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Yet the death of each of its constituent members is as certain as if an epidemic took them all at once. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- However, they must keep epidemics away somehow or other, and fumigation is cheaper than soap. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- The prevention of disease epidemics is one of the most striking achievements of modern science. Bertha M. Clark. General Science.
Inputed by Alex