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:
Despite a round of antivirals, the flare turned into the painful condition Bell’s palsy, a complication that causes muscle weakness and drooping, often in one side of the face.
From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2026
Steele-John, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, was first elected to the senate in Western Australia in November 2017.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026
My Left Foot told the true story of an Irish man named Christy Brown, played by Day-Lewis, who was born with cerebral palsy and could control only his left foot.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
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 ward there was an old man whose head shook with palsy and who picked feebly at his eyebrows.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
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
In the same manner in common palsies the inaction of the paralytic muscle seems not to be owing to defect of the stimulus of the will, but to exhaustion of sensorial power.
From Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Erasmus Darwin
Page 159 In children, hysterical pain, hysterical contractures or palsies, mutism, and aphonia are the most usual symptoms.
From The Nervous Child by Hector Charles Cameron
He struggled with palsied hands to shield his exposed body with a thin towel.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 21, 2021
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
He tottered about, shivering, and stuffed every open chink as well as he could with his palsied paws, until no light came through anywhere.
From "Abel's Island" by William Steig
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 Byron J. (Byron Johnson) Rees
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
The whole aerial superstructure—the heaven-aspiring pyramid of geometrical synthesis—all tottered under the palsying logic of evidence, to which these celebrated mathematicians appealed.
From The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey—Vol. 1 With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg by James Hogg
Why should every nerve quiver as she sat there mute with a palsying fear?
From Lily Pearl and The Mistress of Rosedale by Ida Glenwood
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