Disease

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /dɪˈziːz/
• US enPR: dÄ­-zÄ“zʹ, IPA: /dɪˈziz/
• Rhymes: -iːz

Origin

Middle English disese, from Anglo-Norman desese, disaise, from Old French desaise (- + ease). Displaced native Middle English adle, audle ("disease") (from Old English ādl ("disease, sickness")), Middle English cothe, coathe ("disease") (from Old English coþu ("disease")).

Noun

1. (pathology) An abnormal condition of the body or mind that causes discomfort or dysfunction; distinct from injury insofar as the latter is usually instantaneously acquired.The tomato plants had some kind of disease that left their leaves splotchy and fruit withered.
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616)Diseases desperate grown,
  By desperate appliances are relieved.
• James Madison, Jr. (1751-1836)The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public counsels have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 5, Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. … When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.
• 1922, Ben Travers, A Cuckoo in the Nest Chapter 1, “… the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes.... And then, when you see senders, you probably find that they are the most melancholy old folk with malignant diseases. …”
• 2012-03, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, The British Longitude Act Reconsidered, Conditions were horrendous aboard most British naval vessels at the time. Scurvy and other diseases ran rampant, killing more seamen each year than all other causes combined, including combat.
2. (by extension) Any abnormal or harmful condition, as of society, people's attitudes, way of living etc.
• N.N., , Paper 134:6.7War is not man's great and terrible disease; war is a symptom, a result. The real disease is the virus of national sovereignty.
3. Lack of ease; uneasiness; trouble; vexation; disquiet.
• Edmund Spenser (c.1552 – 1599)So all that night they passed in great disease.
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616)to shield thee from diseases of the world

Synonyms

• affliction
• ailment
• complaint
• ill health
• illness
• malady
• medical condition
• morbus
• rot
• sickness

Derived terms

Full definition of disease

Verb

1. (obsolete) To cause unease; to annoy, irritate.
• 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Luke VIII:Whyll he yett speake, there cam won from the rulers off the synagogis housse, which sayde to hym: Thy doughter is deed, disease not the master.
• 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.ii:mote he soft himselfe appease,
  And fairely fare on foot, how euer loth;
  His double burden did him sore disease.
2. To infect with a disease.

Anagrams

• seaside