falling sickness

American  

noun

1. epilepsy.

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falling sickness British  

noun

1. a former name (nontechnical) for epilepsy

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Etymology

Origin of falling sickness

First recorded in 1520–30

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

falling sickness

Seizures before the spinning potter's wheel were taken as a sign of "the falling sickness," the Roman name for epilepsy.

From Time Magazine Archive

These attacks, they told me, were falling sickness fits.

From Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders Cogitations and Confessions of an Aged Physician by William A. (William Andrus) Alcott

Twenty persons at several times, in fits of the falling sickness, were in two or three minutes brought to themselves....

From Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing by George Barton Cutten

Anciently, the kings of England, on Good Friday, hallowed, with great ceremony, certain rings the wearing of which was believed to prevent the falling sickness.

From The Mysteries of All Nations Rise and Progress of Superstition, Laws Against and Trials of Witches, Ancient and Modern Delusions Together With Strange Customs, Fables, and Tales by James Grant

Open! unless that the falling sickness is come upon you, or that you are maybe lying dead upon the floor!

From Three Wonder Plays by Lady Gregory

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