ague

American  

[ey-gyoo] / ˈeɪ gju /

noun

• agues
  plural

1. Pathology. a malarial fever characterized by regularly returning paroxysms, marked by successive cold, hot, and sweating fits.

2. a fit of fever or shivering or shaking chills, accompanied by malaise, pains in the bones and joints, etc.; chill.

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ague British  

/ ˈeɪɡjuː /

noun

1. a fever with successive stages of fever and chills esp when caused by malaria

2. a fit of shivering

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• aguelike
  adjective
• aguish
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• agues
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ague

1250–1300; Middle English < Middle French, short for fievre ague acute fever < Latin febris acūta

Explanation

When people got sick with fever and chills back in colonial times, they called their illness ague. Today most people would refer to ague as malaria. Starting in the 13th century, feverish illness was named ague, from the Medieval Latin acuta, "sharp fever," and its root, meaning "sharp." The word began to refer specifically to malaria, an infectious disease spread by mosquitoes, as early as the late 14th century. Colonial doctors often attributed cases of ague to "bad air," and the illness reached epidemic levels several times. It was eliminated as a public health issue in the U.S. around 1950, although malaria is still a problem in other parts of the world.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ague agues

Added to that, they ague their aircraft are quiet and emissions-free.

From BBC ● Dec. 22, 2022

A century and a half later, malaria — or ague, as it was called — was rampant in the United States, especially on the frontier.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 22, 2020

So while Shakespeare had his "canker in the bud", voguish words such as palsy, purge, apoplexy, ague and balm were used by Donne repeatedly to make his work sound cutting-edge.

From The Guardian ● Nov. 24, 2012

This too shall pass, when the final games ends; and World Cup fever will again abate into soccer ague.

From Time ● Jul. 10, 2010

I tried to think what the ague might be; the word was familiar, but I couldn’t remember what I’d heard or read about it.

From "Kindred" by Octavia Butler

Political analyst Mr Lawal said the president should appoint the best person for the job, irrespective of their ethnic origin – and agues that this is what Tinubu is doing.

From BBC ● May 26, 2025

In 1763, an English clergyman, Edward Stone, found that willow tea eased the agues of malaria.

From Time Magazine Archive

Today, winter as well as summer, he bathes his feet in cold water every morning, a regimen he credits with making him impervious to colds and agues.

From Time Magazine Archive

Quinine, kwin′ēn, ki-nēn′, or kwī′nīn, n. a colourless, inodorous, and very bitter alkaloid, obtained from the bark of the Cinchona tree, its salts used for agues and fevers.—ns.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various

Quartan agues kill old men and cure young.

From Curiosities of Medical Experience by J. G. (John Gideon) Millingen