calenture
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of calenture
1585–95; earlier calentura < Spanish: fever, equivalent to calent ( ar ) to heat (< Latin calent-, stem of calēns, present participle of calēre to be hot) + -ura -ure
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.
A calenture is a form of fever at sea in which the sufferer believes himself to be surrounded by green fields, and often leaps overboard.
From The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 6 Letters 1821-1842 by Lamb, Mary
And us wi' scarce any water and half on us rotten wi' scurvy or calenture, an' no luck this cruise, neither!
From Martin Conisby's Vengeance by Farnol, Jeffery
They seemed to me to have nothing more than calenture, brought on by overwork, a malarious atmosphere, and a bad sanitary environment.
From Campaigning in Cuba by Kennan, George
But in this voyage I was extremely sick, being thrown into a violent calenture through the excessive heat, trading upon the coast from the latitude of fifteen degrees north, even to the line itself.
From The Life and Most Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner (1801) by Defoe, Daniel
“Too old!”–His calenture ceased suddenly; there was a tug on his fishing line.
From The Bonadventure A Random Journal of an Atlantic Holiday by Blunden, Edmund
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.
