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Webster 1913 Edition

Disease

Dis-ease′

,
Noun.
[OE.
disese
, OF.
desaise
;
des-
(L.
dis-
) +
aise
ease. See
Ease
.]
1.
Lack of ease; uneasiness; trouble; vexation; disquiet.
[Obs.]
So all that night they passed in great
disease
.
Spenser.
To shield thee from
diseases
of the world.
Shakespeare
2.
An alteration in the state of the body or of some of its organs, interrupting or disturbing the performance of the vital functions, and causing or threatening pain and weakness; malady; affection; illness; sickness; disorder; – applied figuratively to the mind, to the moral character and habits, to institutions, the state, etc.
Diseases
desperate grown,
By desperate appliances are relieved.
Shakespeare
The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public counsels have, in truth, been the mortal
diseases
under which popular governments have every where perished.
Madison.
Syn. – Distemper; ailing; ailment; malady; disorder; sickness; illness; complaint; indisposition; affection. –
Disease
,
Disorder
,
Distemper
,
Malady
,
Affection
. Disease is the leading medical term. Disorder mean[GREEK] much the same, with perhaps some slight reference to an irregularity of the system. Distemper is now used by physicians only of the diseases of animals. Malady is not a medical term, and is less used than formerly in literature. Affection has special reference to the part, organ, or function disturbed;
as, his
disease
is an
affection
of the lungs
. A disease is usually deep-seated and permanent, or at least prolonged; a disorder is often slight, partial, and temporary; malady has less of a technical sense than the other terms, and refers more especially to the suffering endured. In a figurative sense we speak of a disease mind, of disordered faculties, and of mental maladies.

Dis-ease′

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Diseased
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Diseasing
.]
1.
To deprive of ease; to disquiet; to trouble; to distress.
[Obs.]
His double burden did him sore
disease
.
Spenser.
2.
To derange the vital functions of; to afflict with disease or sickness; to disorder; – used almost exclusively in the participle diseased.
He was
diseased
in body and mind.
Macaulay.

Webster 1828 Edition

Disease

DISEASE

,
Noun.
Dizeze. [dis and ease.]
1.
In its primary sense, pain, uneasiness, distress, and so used by Spenser; but in this sense, obsolete.
2.
The cause of pain or uneasiness; distemper; malady; sickness; disorder; any state of a living body in which the natural functions of the organs are interrupted or disturbed, either by defective or preternatural action, without a disrupture of parts by violence, which is called a wound. The first effect of disease is uneasiness or pain, and the ultimate effect is death. A disease may affect the whole body, or a particular limb or part of the body. We say a diseased limb; a disease in the head or stomach; and such partial affection of the body is called a local or topical disease. The word is also applied to the disorders of other animals, as well as to those of man; and to any derangement of the vegetative functions of plants.
The shafts of disease shoot across our path in such a variety of courses, that the atmosphere of human life is darkened by their number, and the escape of an individual becomes almost miraculous.
3.
A disordered state of the mind or intellect, by which the reason is impaired.
4.
In society, vice; corrupt state of morals. Vices are called moral diseases.
A wise man converses with the wicked, as a physician with the sick, not to catch the disease, but to cure it.
5.
Political or civil disorder, or vices in a state; any practice which tends to disturb the peace of society, or impede or prevent the regular administration of government.
The instability, injustice and confusion introduced into the public councils have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have every where perished.

DISEASE

,
Verb.
T.
dizeze.
1.
To interrupt or impair any or all the natural and regular functions of the several organs of a living body; to afflict with pain or sickness to make morbid; used chiefly in the passive participle, as a diseased body, a diseased stomach; but diseased may here be considered as an adjective.
2.
To interrupt or render imperfect the regular functions of the brain, or of the intellect; to disorder; to derange.
3.
To infect; to communicate disease to, by contagion.
4.
To pain; to make uneasy.

Definition 2024

disease

disease

See also: dis-ease

English

Noun

disease ‎(countable and uncountable, plural diseases)

  1. (pathology) An abnormal condition of a human, animal or plant 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, chapter 5, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      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, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:
      “[…] 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 [the senders], you probably find that they are the most melancholy old folk with malignant diseases. […]”
    • 2012 March 1, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87:
      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., The Urantia Book, Paper 134:6.7
      War 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.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

an abnormal condition of the body causing discomfort or dysfunction

Verb

disease ‎(third-person singular simple present diseases, present participle diseasing, simple past and past participle diseased)

  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

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /dɪˈziːz/
  • (US) enPR: dĭ-zēzʹ, IPA(key): /dɪˈziz/
  • Rhymes: -iːz

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