white plague
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of white plague
An Americanism dating back to 1865–70
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.
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 • Feb. 18, 2018
Denver's Dr. Harry Corper, 65, who developed the test, is an oldtime foe and onetime victim of the white plague.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the long war against the white plague, medicine's two most useful search tools have had a grave defect.
From Time Magazine Archive
When 100 physicians, nurses and public-health workers met in Atlantic City, NJ. half a century ago to found the National Tuberculosis Association, the "white plague" was the No. 1 cause of death in the U.S.
From Time Magazine Archive
She had read that victims of the white plague always talk in this cheerful way about themselves, and she worked on without replying, and this gave him an excellent opportunity to study her closely.
From The Forester's Daughter A Romance of the Bear-Tooth Range by Garland, Hamlin
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.
