dropsy

American  

[drop-see] / ˈdrɒp si /

noun

1. (formerly) edema.

2. an infectious disease of fishes, characterized by a swollen, spongelike body and protruding scales, caused by a variety of the bacterium Pseudomonas punctata.

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dropsy British  

/ ˈdrɒpsɪ, ˈdrɒpsɪkəl /

noun

1. pathol a condition characterized by an accumulation of watery fluid in the tissues or in a body cavity

2. slang a tip or bribe

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Other Word Forms

• dropsical
  adjective
• dropsied
  adjective
• dropsically
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of dropsy

1250–1300; Middle English drop ( e ) sie, aphetic variant of ydropesie < Old French < Medieval Latin ( h ) ydrōpisīa, equivalent to Latin hydrōpis ( is ) (< Greek hydrōpi-, stem of hýdrōps dropsy ( hydr- hydr- ¹ + -ōpsi- < ?) + -sis -sis ) + -ia -y ³

Example Sentences

Dropsy on the chest was found to have declared itself; and in two days, despite every care and skill, the doctor said Beethoven must die.

From Music and Some Highly Musical People by Trotter, James M.

Dropsy was an invariable feature of the disease, and was either the first symptom or occurred early.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 7 "Drama" to "Dublin" by Various

Dropsy came, and gout, with worse in his bowels, and 'on the top of them all, as the captain of the men of death that came to take him away,' consumption.

From Bunyan by Froude, James Anthony

Rupert, clasping his hot-water bottle raptly, murmured dreamily as he merged into the Great Unknown, the crystallisation of the subconscious influence which had permeated his whole career— "Dropsy, Dropsy, Topsy, Topsy— Harriet Beecher Stowe."

From Terribly Intimate Portraits by Loraine, Lorn

Himself is his own sea; Dropsy his malady In sad severity.

From The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw, Volume II (of 2) by Crashaw, Richard