black·wa·ter fever

(blăk′wô′tər, -wŏt′ər)

A serious, often fatal complication of chronic malaria, characterized by the passage of bloody, dark red or black urine.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

blackwater fever

(Medicine) med a rare and serious complication of malaria, characterized by massive destruction of red blood cells, producing dark red or blackish urine

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

black′water fe′ver

a severe form of malaria characterized by kidney damage and hemoglobinuria resulting in dark urine.

[1880–85]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

blackwater fever - severe and often fatal malaria characterized by kidney damage resulting in dark urine

malaria - an infective disease caused by sporozoan parasites that are transmitted through the bite of an infected Anopheles mosquito; marked by paroxysms of chills and fever

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References in classic literature

One of my Polynesian sailors lay at death's door with blackwater fever. Oh, yes, it was a full man's job, and I dosed and doctored, and pulled teeth, and dragged my patients through mild little things like ptomaine poisoning.

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On December 10, 2012, it was gazetted as a national monument under the name 'Old Provincial Commissioner's office' for the purposes of linking the gradual colonial administrative advancement into the interior of Kenya from Mombasa, Machakos, Fort Smith and Fort Hall.It is from here that present-day Murang'a town sprouted, and was later called Fort Hall after the death of the commissioner on March 18, 1901, from Blackwater fever.

Mjini: Where porters built a mosque in Murang'a town

Private Gordon Stanley Perry, 1st Battalion, Welsh Regiment, died in Salonika on April 24 from Blackwater fever - a complication of malaria.

Poignant diary reveals the brief respites from horrors of frontline; 100 years ago this week, a South Wales soldier wrote of an idyllic day in the French sunshine. In a brief escape from the horrors of war, Arthur David Glanffrwd Evans was only too aware that such opportunities - far from the realities elsewhere of malaria, war camps and teenage enlistees - were all too rare. Ceri Joseph of Porthcawl Museum reports..

By VJ Day, when the men were liberated, Jack was suffering from recurring malaria, beriberi and Blackwater fever.

Our time to remember; Brian Daniel finds out why the people of one Northumberland village kept VE Day anniversary celebrations low key, and will instead mark 70 years since VJ Day