smallpox
- an acute, highly contagious, febrile disease, caused by the variola virus, and characterized by a pustular eruption that often leaves permanent pits or scars: eradicated worldwide by vaccination programs.
Origin of smallpox
Examples from the Web for smallpox
Contemporary Examples of smallpox
In many places, it was custom to place huts outside the villages for smallpox victims.
For example, vaccinia immune globulin, or VIG, is stored and ready for the next person who becomes ill from smallpox vaccine.
In the 18th century, German immigrants coming to Pennsylvania boarded ships plagued with typhus, dysentery, smallpox, and scurvy.
Shoham adds without substantive evidence that “Syrian possession of the smallpox virus is likely.”
Western Intelligence Suspects Assad Has a Secret Chemical StockpileNoah Shachtman, Christopher Dickey
May 1, 2014
The only places the smallpox virus are known to exist today are storage facilities at the CDC and in Russia.
Western Intelligence Suspects Assad Has a Secret Chemical StockpileNoah Shachtman, Christopher Dickey
May 1, 2014
Historical Examples of smallpox
And I like her more than ever now, when she risked what she thought was smallpox to care for him.
Keziah CoffinJoseph C. Lincoln
John is worshiped pretty nigh, since his pluck with that smallpox man.
Keziah CoffinJoseph C. Lincoln
And smallpox, even now, is a disease the name of which strikes panic to a community.
Keziah CoffinJoseph C. Lincoln
Just say smallpox to this town and it goes to pieces like a smashed egg.
Keziah CoffinJoseph C. Lincoln
"Better her face should be pitted with smallpox than bring her to the pit of hell," said Csar.
The ManxmanHall Caine
smallpox
- an acute highly contagious viral disease characterized by high fever, severe prostration, and a pinkish rash changing in form from papules to pustules, which dry up and form scabs that are cast off, leaving pitted depressionsTechnical name: variola Related adjective: variolous
Word Origin for smallpox
Word Origin and History for smallpox
smallpox
(smôl′pŏks′)- An acute, highly infectious, often fatal disease caused by a poxvirus and characterized by high fever and aches with subsequent widespread eruption of papules that blister, produce pus, and form scabs that leave permanent pockmarks.variola
smallpox
- A highly infectious and often fatal disease caused by the variola virus of the genus Orthopoxvirus and characterized by fever, headache, and severely inflamed skin sores that result in extensive scarring. Once a dreaded killer of children that caused the deaths of millions of Native Americans after the arrival of European settlers in the Americas, smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980 following a worldwide vaccination campaign. Samples of the virus have been preserved in laboratories in the United States and Russia. Also called variola See Note at Jenner.
smallpox
An acute and infectious disease caused by a virus and now almost completely eradicated. Smallpox was characterized by high fever and large sores on the body that leave scars.