bubonic plague

noun

, Pathology.

1. a serious, sometimes fatal, infection with the bacterial toxin Yersinia pestis, transmitted by fleas from infected rodents and characterized by high fever, weakness, and the formation of buboes, especially in the groin and armpits.

bubonic plague

noun

1. an acute infectious febrile disease characterized by chills, prostration, delirium, and formation of buboes: caused by the bite of a rat flea infected with the bacterium Yersinia pestis See also plague

bubonic plague

1. A highly contagious disease , usually fatal, affecting the lymphatic system . The bubonic plague is caused by bacteria transmitted to humans by rat-borne fleas.

Notes

From 1347 to 1351, a disease known as the Black Death , similar to the bubonic plague, entered Europe from Asia and killed a large percentage of the population, sometimes wiping out entire towns. It caused widespread social changes in Europe.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bubonic plague¹

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

And, most important, it wasn’t bubonic plague, the historically dreaded but actually not very contagious form of the disease.

From MIT Technology Review

San Francisco plague outbreakIn 1900, an outbreak of bubonic plague struck San Francisco.

From Washington Post

Isaac Newton was a Cambridge student, quarantined because of the bubonic plague at his family’s apple orchard, when he made some of his key discoveries about gravity.

From Time

The bubonic plague of the 1340s was often blamed on Jews by the Ahmadinejads of the era.

From The Daily Beast

The terrible plague of the Black Death that swept over Europe from 1347 to 1350 was a malignant form of the bubonic plague.

From Project Gutenberg

The bubonic plague, the most fatal of all epidemic diseases, has already appeared in California and Mexico.

From Project Gutenberg

In visiting a case of bubonic plague the priest should be as cautious as if he were attending a smallpox patient.

From Project Gutenberg

A determined effort is now being made to exterminate the rat because of its connection with bubonic plague.

From Project Gutenberg

Bubonic plague, one of the most dreaded of all infectious diseases, is carried to man by fleas from rats.

From Project Gutenberg