malignant pustule n 1: a form of anthrax infection that begins as papule that becomes a vesicle and breaks with a discharge of toxins; symptoms of septicemia are severe with vomiting and high fever and profuse sweating; the infection is often fatal [syn: cutaneous anthrax, malignant pustule]

Pustule \Pus"tule\ (?; 135), n. [L. pustula, and pusula: cf. F. pustule.] (Med.) A vesicle or an elevation of the cuticle with an inflamed base, containing pus. Malignant pustule. See under Malignant.

Malignant \Ma*lig"nant\, a. [L. malignans, -antis, p. pr. of malignare, malignari, to do or make maliciously. See Malign, and cf. Benignant.] 1. Disposed to do harm, inflict suffering, or cause distress; actuated by extreme malevolence or enmity; virulently inimical; bent on evil; malicious. A malignant and a turbaned Turk. --Shak. 2. Characterized or caused by evil intentions; pernicious. ``Malignant care.'' --Macaulay. Some malignant power upon my life. --Shak. Something deleterious and malignant as his touch. --Hawthorne. 3. (Med.) Tending to produce death; threatening a fatal issue; virulent; as, malignant diphtheria. Malignant pustule (Med.), a very contagious disease, transmitted to man from animals, characterized by the formation, at the point of reception of the virus, of a vesicle or pustule which first enlarges and then breaks down into an unhealthy ulcer. It is marked by profound exhaustion and usually fatal. Called also charbon, and sometimes, improperly, anthrax.

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