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Webster 1913 Edition


Dropsy

Drop′sy

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Dropsies
(#)
.
[OE.
dropsie
,
dropesie
, OF.
idropisie
, F.
hydropisie
, L.
hydropisis
, fr. Gr. [GREEK] dropsy, fr. [GREEK] water. See
Water
, and cf.
Hydropsy
.]
(Med.)
An unnatural collection of serous fluid in any serous cavity of the body, or in the subcutaneous cellular tissue.
Dunglison.

Webster 1828 Edition


Dropsy

DROPSY

,
Noun.
[L, Gr., water; the face. Formerly written hydropisy; whence by contraction, dropsy.] In medicine, an unnatural collection of water, in an part of the body, proceeding from a greater effusion of serum by the exhalant arteries, than the absorbents take up. It occurs most frequently in persons of lax habits, or in bodies debilitated by disease. The dropsy takes different names, according to the part affected; as ascites, or dropsy of the abdomen; hydrocephalus, or water in the head; anasarca, or a watery swelling over the whole body; &c.

Definition 2024


dropsy

dropsy

English

Noun

dropsy (usually uncountable, plural dropsies)

  1. (pathology) Swelling, edema, often from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease COPD.
    • 1911, Joseph Addison, Encyclopædia Britannica:
      The disease under which Addison laboured appears to have been asthma. It became more violent after his retirement from office, and was now accompanied by dropsy.

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