palsy
1 Americannoun
-
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
Mr Hayayei, who had cerebral palsy, died at the scene.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
"My little sister has cerebal palsy - it's something that's close to me, it's something that I've always wanted to be involved in," he added.
From BBC ● Apr. 29, 2026
My brother, who has cerebral palsy and is developmentally disabled, is two years older than I am.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 10, 2026
Mr. Bykovski’s daughter, Esther, had been in my class until she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and had to go away to a special school.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
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
Why palsies are not always immediately preceded by violent exertions.
From Zoonomia, Vol. I Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Darwin, Erasmus
Sometimes the body's disease comes first, and dims our eyes and palsies our hands, before the fire of our mind and of our intellect is quenched.
From St. Ronan's Well by Scott, Walter, Sir
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
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
Clutching its credit card in hands palsied with anticipation, Lost in Showbiz catches its breath long enough to advise: don't all subscribe at once, you'll crash their server!
From The Guardian ● Jan. 6, 2011
The old woman, shrunk by age and time to little bigger than a child, held on to a stick as tall and bent as herself with palsied and swollen-knuckled hands.
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
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
But to such a one uncertainty is like a shock to the body, palsying the form and changing a strong arm into a nerveless, useless stick of bone and tissue.
From The Heart-Cry of Jesus by Rees, Byron J. (Byron Johnson)
Have we now escaped the inert and self-absorbed deity of Lucretius, only to fall into the palsying grasp of the tyrannous deity of Calvin?
From The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Exodus by Chadwick, G. A.
Again palsying fear and ignoble selfishness tugged at his heart-strings, and he felt all his carefully cultivated resolutions weakening.
From The Red Acorn by McElroy, John
That week of palsying, unnerving isolation got me.
From Branded by Lynde, Francis
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.
