Leprosy
['leprəsɪ] or ['lɛprəsi]
Definition
(noun.) chronic granulomatous communicable disease occurring in tropical and subtropical regions; characterized by inflamed nodules beneath the skin and wasting of body parts; caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium leprae.
Typist: Shelby--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A cutaneous disease which first appears as blebs or as reddish, shining, slightly prominent spots, with spreading edges. These are often followed by an eruption of dark or yellowish prominent nodules, frequently producing great deformity. In one variety of the disease, anaesthesia of the skin is a prominent symptom. In addition there may be wasting of the muscles, falling out of the hair and nails, and distortion of the hands and feet with destruction of the bones and joints. It is incurable, and is probably contagious.
Edited by Julia
Definition
n. a name applied to several different cutaneous diseases of contagious character now confined to lepra cutanea elephantiasis GréŽorum or Leontiasis.—n. Lep′ra leprosy: a scurfy mealy substance on the surface of some plants.—adjs. Lep′rose scale-like or scurf-like; Lep′rous affected with leprosy.—adv. Lep′rously.—ns. Lep′rousness Lepros′ity.
Typist: Trevor
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream that you are infected with this dread disease, foretells sickness, by which you will lose money and incur the displeasure of others. If you see others afflicted thus, you will meet discouraging prospects and love will turn into indifference.
Editor: Sidney
Examples
- But poverty may be as bad as leprosy, if it divides us from what we most care for. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- The royal Confessor was endowed by heaven with power to cleanse the ulcers of the body, but only God himself can cure the leprosy of the soul. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- There is a stain in the fabric of the Temple, deep and foul as that left by the streaks of leprosy on the walls of the infected houses of old. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- Green, were fiercest in the greater towns, where filthy and undrained streets afforded a constant haunt to leprosy and fever. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The leprosy of unreality disfigured every human creature in attendance upon Monseigneur. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
Checker: Stan