Dictionary.com

breakbone fever

[ breyk-bohn ]
/ ˈbreɪkˌboʊn /
Save This Word!

noun Pathology.
QUIZ
CAN YOU ANSWER THESE COMMON GRAMMAR DEBATES?
There are grammar debates that never die; and the ones highlighted in the questions in this quiz are sure to rile everyone up once again. Do you know how to answer the questions that cause some of the greatest grammar debates?
Question 1 of 7
Which sentence is correct?

Origin of breakbone fever

1860–65; break + bone, so called because it makes the bones ache as if breaking at the joints
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use breakbone fever in a sentence

  • Commonplaces of gossip followed this—county politics and a neighbor's wife sick of breakbone fever down the road a piece.

  • Commonplaces of gossip followed this—county politics, and a neighbor's wife sick of breakbone fever down the road a piece.

British Dictionary definitions for breakbone fever

breakbone fever
/ (ˈbreɪkˌbəʊn) /

noun
another name for dengue
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
FEEDBACK