CATALEPSY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does catalepsy mean? 

• CATALEPSY (noun)
  The noun CATALEPSY has 1 sense:

1. a trancelike state with loss of voluntary motion and failure to react to stimuli

  Familiarity information: CATALEPSY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CATALEPSY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A trancelike state with loss of voluntary motion and failure to react to stimuli

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("catalepsy" is a kind of...):

hypersomnia (an inability to stay awake)

Derivation:

cataleptic (of or having characteristics of or affected with catalepsy)

 Context examples 

Catalepsy may be associated with PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS (e.g., SCHIZOPHRENIA, CATATONIC), nervous system drug toxicity, and other conditions.

(Catalepsy, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

This letter interested me deeply, because the chief difficulty in the study of catalepsy is the rareness of the disease.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And the catalepsy?

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

After I had graduated I continued to devote myself to research, occupying a minor position in King’s College Hospital, and I was fortunate enough to excite considerable interest by my research into the pathology of catalepsy, and finally to win the Bruce Pinkerton prize and medal by the monograph on nervous lesions to which your friend has just alluded.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)