breakbone fever
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of breakbone fever
1860–65; break + bone, so called because it makes the bones ache as if breaking at the joints
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The illness, also called breakbone fever, can be excruciating, with high fevers, headaches, muscle and joint pains and lingering weakness.
From New York Times • Dec. 17, 2017
Dengue fever - also known as "breakbone fever" because of the severe pain it can cause - is an infectious mosquito-borne disease that thrives in tropical regions.
From Reuters • Mar. 25, 2014
Becoming infected with any one causes the classic breakbone fever.
From Slate • Dec. 21, 2012
It is probably dengue fever, also called breakbone fever.
From Time Magazine Archive
Commonplaces of gossip followed this—county politics and a neighbor's wife sick of breakbone fever down the road a piece.
From The Escape of Mr. Trimm His Plight and other Plights by Cobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
