puerperal fever

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noun Pathology.

a systemic bacterial infection of the endometrium characterized by fever, rapid heartbeat, uterine tenderness, and malodorous discharge, chiefly occurring in women after childbirth, usually as the result of unsterile obstetric procedures.

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Origin of puerperal fever

First recorded in 1760–70

Words nearby puerperal fever

puerile, puerilism, puerility, puerpera, puerperal, puerperal fever, puerperal psychosis, puerperium, Puerto Ayacucho, Puerto Barrios, Puerto Cabello

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use puerperal fever in a sentence

Besides, victory fever had spread like wildfire throughout the Allied armies.
Hitler’s Hail Mary|James A. Warren|December 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The sets—which, really, were a feat of design and direction—appeared to be remnants of a Lewis Carroll fever dream.
‘Peter Pan Live!’ Review: No Amount of Clapping Brings It to Life|Kevin Fallon|December 5, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Future lives, careers and attitudes were being determined in this lightly regulated fever.
The Castration of Alan Turing, Britain’s Code-Breaking WWII Hero|Clive Irving|November 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Spirits in Stanleyville were high, and a local 19-year-old was emboldened by independence fever.
‘Argo’ in the Congo: The Ghosts of the Stanleyville Hostage Crisis|Nina Strochlic|November 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Take Too Many Cooks: a fever dream of a segment that aired at 4:00am earlier this week.
Jimmy Kimmel Pranks Kids (Again), Taylor Swift’s 1989 Aerobics, and More Viral Videos|The Daily Beast Video|November 9, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Day by day these fretting anxieties and perplexities wasted her strength, and her fever grew higher and higher.
Ramona|Helen Hunt Jackson
Père Bracasse was ill, suffering from rheumatism, bronchitis, fever and corns.
The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol|William J. Locke
When Stanhope entered to him, he found his guest lying on a sofa, in a high state of fever, both from his wounds and agitation.
The Pastor's Fire-side Vol. 3 of 4|Jane Porter
If the fever ends by crisis, the crisis is accompanied by a rapid and striking increase.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd
The spirillum of relapsing fever can be identified by the method for the malarial parasite in fresh blood.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd

British Dictionary definitions for puerperal fever

puerperal fever

noun

a serious, formerly widespread, form of blood poisoning caused by infection contracted during childbirth

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