murrain

[mur-in]

noun

Veterinary Pathology. any of various diseases of cattle, as anthrax, foot-and-mouth disease, and Texas fever.

Obsolete. a plague or pestilence.

Origin of murrain

1300–50; Middle English moreine, moryne < Middle French morine a plague, equivalent to mor(ir) to die (≪ Latin morī) + -ine -ine²

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for murrain

Historical Examples of murrain

May the murrain strike me if I can call to mind aught about her.
The White Company
Arthur Conan Doyle
When your sheep died of the murrain you hung up their hides to dry—in the schoolhouse.
The Day of Wrath
Maurus Jkai
Some of them fell a prey to wild beasts—some died of the murrain.
The Bush Boys
Captain Mayne Reid
There would have been above 3,000, had it not been for the murrain that was here.'
History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Appendix
Thomas Carlyle
Disease had attacked the inhabitants of the hamlet, a murrain their cattle.
Castes and Tribes of Southern India
Edgar Thurston

British Dictionary definitions for murrain

murrain

noun archaic

any plaguelike disease in cattle

a plague

Word Origin for murrain

C14: from Old French morine, from morir to die, from Latin morī

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

Word Origin and History for murrain

"cattle plague," early 14c., from Anglo-French moryn, Old French moraine "pestilence" (12c.), probably from mourir "to die," from Latin mori (see mortal (adj.)).