palsy
1 Americannoun
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palsies
plural
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any of a variety of atonal muscular conditions characterized by tremors of the body parts, as the hands, arms, or legs, or of the entire body.
verb (used with object)
adjective
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of palsy1
1250–1300; Middle English, variant of parlesie < Middle French paralisie < Latin paralysis paralysis
Origin of palsy2
Explanation
If you're paralyzed, you can describe your condition as palsy. Your grandfather's palsy might confine him to a wheelchair. The noun palsy can be used to talk about an inability to move, or alternately, an uncontrollable shaking that's caused by some condition or disease. Some kinds of palsy affect one side of a person's face, leaving half of it paralyzed. The Greek origin of palsy is paralysis, which literally means "loosen," from the word paralyein, and its roots para, "beside," and lyein, "loosen or untie."
Vocabulary lists containing palsy
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
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The Great Gilly Hopkins
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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.
See Examples For:
He said his son has cerebral palsy and a seizure disorder, and relies on assistance to live with dignity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026
In the well-maintained gardens, young adults – some with Down's syndrome, others with cerebral palsy, and autism - carefully tend their crops.
From BBC ● Apr. 5, 2026
My brother, who has cerebral palsy and is developmentally disabled, is two years older than I am.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 10, 2026
Cerebral palsy is a group of conditions caused by a problem with the brain.
From BBC ● Mar. 6, 2026
When either cold or excited, his palsy increased.
From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes
That fall, a friend told the patient about a clinic at New York University that specialized in facial palsies.
From New York Times ● Sep. 29, 2022
Hiroshimans feel that The Bomb purged them of all war guilt; perhaps that is why Hiroshima is free of the paralysis that palsies most of the rest of the world.
From Time Magazine Archive
Among the many symptoms associated with overexposure are blindness, insomnia, kidney failure, hearing loss, cancer, palsies, and convulsions.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
He had had a fright, had been smitten by that sudden gripe of fear which palsies limbs and freezes blood, which the ancients called the Stroke of Pan, and we still call Panic after them.
From Lore of Proserpine by Maurice Henry Hewlett
Do not palsies and apoplexies, which occur about the equinoxes, happen a few days before the vernal equinoctial lunation, and after the autumnal one?
From Zoonomia, Vol. I Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Erasmus Darwin
In his first annual message to Congress, John Quincy Adams, among the most experienced and intellectually formidable presidents, warned leaders against giving the impression that “we are palsied by the will of our constituents.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2017
Even in his palsied state in the championship rounds of his life, his eyes sparkled and his wit remained as sharp as the punches with which he tormented nearly all of his 61 opponents.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 4, 2016
In front of a billion or so viewers, Witz was palsied with pleasure.
From Time ● Mar. 3, 2014
On the spot, they decide to liberate Claude from the company of the palsied, demented, and wheelchair bound.
From Salon ● Feb. 7, 2013
Faye Belle, palsied and gray-skinned, cannot remember her own age.
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
That’s never happened before—hunting is a favorite pastime—and he sees the change in himself as just one more sign of the times’ palsying effect on the simplicity of the old ways.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 14, 2019
Was it not the wraith of his buried love which now hovered before him, blotting out the sight of the carter, deafening his ears to the jest, and palsying his hand?
From William Pitt and the Great War by John Holland Rose
Doubtless many a one has at times felt the stupendous truths of astronomy thus palsying him with a crushing sense of his own nothingness and burying him in fatalistic despair.
From The Destiny of the Soul A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life by William Rounseville Alger
The toil that outstays nature hath A palsying power, a chilling force Which freezes youth at its fresh source.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, April 8, 1893 by Sir F. C. (Francis Cowley) Burnand
What is there in our highly civilized life that escapes the palsying touch of Fashion?
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.
