SWEATING SICKNESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does sweating sickness mean? 

• SWEATING SICKNESS (noun)
  The noun SWEATING SICKNESS has 2 senses:

1. a disease of cattle (especially calves)

2. epidemic in the 15th and 16th centuries and characterized by profuse sweating and high mortality

  Familiarity information: SWEATING SICKNESS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SWEATING SICKNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A disease of cattle (especially calves)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("sweating sickness" is a kind of...):

animal disease (a disease that typically does not affect human beings)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Epidemic in the 15th and 16th centuries and characterized by profuse sweating and high mortality

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

miliary fever; sweating sickness

Hypernyms ("sweating sickness" is a kind of...):

infectious disease (a disease transmitted only by a specific kind of contact)

 Context examples 

Wit, lad, is a catching thing, like the itch or the sweating sickness.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There are three hundred and forty-one in the town, said Aylward, and I hear that three hundred and forty cartels and defiances have already been sent in, the only one missing being Sir John Ravensholme, who is in his bed with the sweating sickness, and cannot set foot to ground.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)