Saint Vitus's dance

American  

[vahy-tuh-siz] / ˈvaɪ tə sɪz /

Or Saint Vitus' dance

noun

1. St. Vitus's dance.

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Saint Vitus's dance British  

/ ˈvaɪtəsɪz /

noun

1. pathol a nontechnical name for Sydenham's chorea

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Etymology

Origin of Saint Vitus's dance

C17: so called because sufferers traditionally prayed to Saint Vitus (3rd-century child martyr) for relief and were said to be cured by a visit to his shrine

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Saint Vitus's dance

Don’t come straggling into the office one morning muttering, “First, gout. Now ague, biliousness, lumbago, Saint Vitus’s dance and dropsy. What’s next, apoplexy?”

From Washington Post ● Aug. 16, 2019

"Ha, ha!" he said, and he jerked and skipped up and down, never stopping an instant, just as if he had Saint Vitus's dance.

From Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 2 by Charles Herbert Sylvester

Madame Marsy was bitten by that tarantula whose bite makes modern society move as if afflicted with Saint Vitus's dance.

From His Excellency the Minister by Henri Roberts

“Have you got Saint Vitus’s dance, Amy Drew?”

From The Campfire Girls on Station Island or, The Wireless from the Steam Yacht by Margaret Penrose

Mrs. Maginnis listened eagerly, and longed to know who this was, for she had a little girl troubled with Saint Vitus's dance.

From The Faith Doctor A Story of New York by Edward Eggleston