white plague

American  

noun

1. tuberculosis, especially pulmonary tuberculosis.

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white plague British  

noun

1. informal  tuberculosis of the lungs

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Etymology

Origin of white plague

An Americanism dating back to 1865–70

Example Sentences

Williams builds a world near St. Louis where a free Black woman, Saint, purchases a town, renames it “Ours” and casts spells that cause a kind of “white plague.”

From Los Angeles Times

Tuberculosis was called “the captain of the men of death” and “the white plague,” for how it left its victims pale and listless.

From Los Angeles Times

The colonies are being killed by a disease of unknown origin — sometimes called white plague or white blotch — first identified off Virginia Key in 2014.

From Los Angeles Times

Why must all other species give way to the white plague?

From The Guardian

By the 1950s, tuberculosis was being treated effectively with antibiotics, and many of the palatial compounds previously devoted to the white plague had shuttered.

From New York Times