pox
Americannoun
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a disease characterized by multiple skin pustules, as smallpox.
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Also called soil rot. Plant Pathology. a disease of sweet potatoes, characterized by numerous pitlike lesions on the roots, caused by a fungus, Streptomyces ipomoea.
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(used as an interjection to express distaste, rejection, aversion, etc.).
A pox on you and your bright ideas!
noun
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any disease characterized by the formation of pustules on the skin that often leave pockmarks when healed
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an informal name for syphilis
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archaic (interjection) an expression of intense disgust or aversion for someone
Etymology
Origin of pox
1540–50 (earlier as surname); spelling variant of pocks, plural of pock
Explanation
A pox is an illness, especially one that's particularly contagious and causes blisters or rashes. Today, most poxes are preventable through vaccines. The most devastating of the poxes was probably smallpox, a viral disease that killed around 500 million people during the 20th century before being officially eradicated in 1980. A more common pox is chickenpox, which is highly infectious and can be fatal but is not as deadly. What these illnesses have in common is scarring blisters, once known themselves as pox, from pock, "pustule or blister."
Vocabulary lists containing pox
"The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," Vocabulary from Act 2
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"The Tempest," Vocabulary from Acts 1 and 2
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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.
A National Scientific Committee for the Management and Control of Sheep and Goat Pox was only established only in late October - a full 14 months after the first case was detected.
From BBC • Nov. 30, 2025
District Judge John McConnell issued a written decision in favor of an insurance company that had refused to pay an $85,000 claim to Carman for the loss of his 31-foot fishing boat, The Chicken Pox.
From Seattle Times • May 10, 2022
In September 2016, he arranged to go on a fishing trip with his mother on his boat named the Chicken Pox.
From Washington Post • May 10, 2022
Syphilis, known as the "Great Pox," was treated with mercury.
From Salon • Nov. 14, 2021
Examples of such diseases are:—Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria, Small Pox, Cholera, Yellow Fever, Tuberculous Disease, Ague, Hydrophobia, Cattle Plague, Anthrax; and many others might be enumerated whose dependence upon parasitic Germs is almost conclusively proved.
From Addresses & Papers / Collectanea by Eade, Peter
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.
