Adjacent Words

Anthrax definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

AN'THRAX, n. [Gr.; supra.]
A carbuncle; a malignant ulcer, with intense burning. The ancients gave this name to a gem, and it is sometimes used for lithanthrax or pit-coal.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a highly infectious animal disease (especially cattle and sheep); it can be transmitted to people [syn: anthrax, splenic fever]
2: a disease of humans that is not communicable; caused by infection with Bacillus anthracis followed by septicemia

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English antrax carbuncle, from Latin anthrax, from Greek, coal, carbuncle Date: 1861 an infectious disease of warm-blooded animals (as cattle and sheep) caused by a spore-forming bacterium (Bacillus anthracis), transmissible to humans especially by the handling of infected products (as wool), and characterized by cutaneous ulcerating nodules or by often fatal lesions in the lungs; also the bacterium causing anthrax

Britannica Concise

Infectious disease of warm-blooded animals, caused by Bacillus anthracis, a bacterium that, in spore form, can retain its virulence in contaminated soil or other material for many years. A disease chiefly of herbivores, the infection may be acquired by persons handling the wool, hair, hides, bones, or carcasses of affected animals. Infection may lead to death from respiratory or cardiac complications (within 1-2 days if acute), or the animal may recover. In humans, anthrax occurs as a cutaneous, pulmonary, or intestinal infection. The most common type, which occurs as an infection of the skin, may lead to fatal septicemia (blood poisoning). The pulmonary form of the disease is usually fatal. Sanitary working environments for susceptible workers are critical to preventing anthrax; early diagnosis and treatment are also of great importance. In recent decades, various countries have attempted to develop anthrax as a weapon of biological warfare; many factors, incl. its extreme potency (vastly greater than any chemical-warfare agent), make it the preferred biological-warfare agent.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. a disease of sheep and cattle transmissible to humans. Etymology: LL f. Gk, = carbuncle

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Anthrax An"thrax, n. [L., fr. Gr. ? coal, carbuncle.] 1. (Med.) (a) A carbuncle. (b) A malignant pustule. 2. (Biol.) A microscopic, bacterial organism (Bacillus anthracis), resembling transparent rods. [See Illust. under Bacillus.] 3. An infectious disease of cattle and sheep. It is ascribed to the presence of a rod-shaped bacterium (Bacillus anthracis), the spores of which constitute the contagious matter. It may be transmitted to man by inoculation. The spleen becomes greatly enlarged and filled with bacteria. Called also splenic fever.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Carbuncle Car"bun*cle, n. [L. carbunculus a little coal, a bright kind of precious stone, a kind of tumor, dim. of carbo coal: cf. F. carboncle. See Carbon.] 1. (Min.) A beautiful gem of a deep red color (with a mixture of scarlet) called by the Greeks anthrax; found in the East Indies. When held up to the sun, it loses its deep tinge, and becomes of the color of burning coal. The name belongs for the most part to ruby sapphire, though it has been also given to red spinel and garnet. 2. (Med.) A very painful acute local inflammation of the subcutaneous tissue, esp. of the trunk or back of the neck, characterized by brawny hardness of the affected parts, sloughing of the skin and deeper tissues, and marked constitutional depression. It differs from a boil in size, tendency to spread, and the absence of a central core, and is frequently fatal. It is also called anthrax. 3. (Her.) A charge or bearing supposed to represent the precious stone. It has eight scepters or staves radiating from a common center. Called also escarbuncle.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Anthrax is a disease of cattle and sheep, in which they get painful sores and a fever. Anthrax can be used in biological weapons.

Moby Thesaurus

African lethargy, Asiatic cholera, Chagres fever, German measles, Haverhill fever, Minamata disease, Texas fever, acute articular rheumatism, ague, alkali disease, altitude sickness, amebiasis, amebic dysentery, anoxemia, anoxia, anoxic anoxia, aphthous fever, bacillary dysentery, bastard measles, bighead, black death, black fever, black lung, black quarter, blackleg, blackwater, blackwater fever, blind staggers, bloody flux, breakbone fever, broken wind, brucellosis, bubonic plague, cachectic fever, caisson disease, cattle plague, cerebral rheumatism, charbon, chicken pox, chilblain, cholera, cowpox, dandy fever, decompression sickness, deer fly fever, dengue, dengue fever, diphtheria, distemper, dumdum fever, dysentery, elephantiasis, encephalitis lethargica, enteric fever, erysipelas, famine fever, five-day fever, flu, foot-and-mouth disease, frambesia, frostbite, gapes, glanders, glandular fever, grippe, hansenosis, heaves, hepatitis, herpes, herpes simplex, herpes zoster, histoplasmosis, hog cholera, hoof-and-mouth disease, hookworm, hydrophobia, immersion foot, infantile paralysis, infectious mononucleosis, inflammatory rheumatism, influenza, itai, jail fever, jet lag, jungle rot, kala azar, kissing disease, lead poisoning, lepra, leprosy, leptospirosis, liver rot, loa loa, loaiasis, lockjaw, loco, loco disease, locoism, mad staggers, madness, malaria, malarial fever, malignant catarrh, malignant catarrhal fever, malignant pustule, mange, marsh fever, measles, megrims, meningitis, mercury poisoning, milzbrand, motion sickness, mumps, ornithosis, osteomyelitis, paratuberculosis, paratyphoid fever, parotitis, parrot fever, pertussis, pip, pneumoconiosis, pneumonia, polio, poliomyelitis, polyarthritis rheumatism, ponos, pseudotuberculosis, psittacosis, quarter evil, rabbit fever, rabies, radiation sickness, radionecrosis, rat-bite fever, red-out, relapsing fever, rheumatic fever, rickettsialpox, rinderpest, ringworm, rot, rubella, rubeola, scabies, scarlatina, scarlet fever, schistosomiasis, septic sore throat, sheep rot, shingles, sleeping sickness, sleepy sickness, smallpox, snail fever, splenic fever, spotted fever, staggers, strep throat, stringhalt, sunstroke, swamp fever, swine dysentery, tetanus, the bends, thrush, tinea, trench fever, trench foot, trench mouth, tuberculosis, tularemia, typhoid, typhoid fever, typhus, typhus fever, undulant fever, vaccinia, varicella, variola, venereal disease, viral dysentery, whooping cough, yaws, yellow fever, yellow jack, zona, zoster