smallpox

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small·pox

(smôl′pŏks′)

An acute, highly infectious, often fatal disease caused by a poxvirus and characterized by high fever and aches with subsequent widespread eruption of pimples that blister, produce pus, and form pockmarks. Smallpox was eradicated worldwide by 1979 as a result of numerous vaccination campaigns and exists only as a laboratory specimen. Also called variola.

[Early Modern English small pockes, small pustules (as opposed to great pockes, the great pox or syphilis), from pockes, pl. of pock; see pock.]

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.

smallpox

(ˈsmɔːlˌpɒks)

(Pathology) an acute highly contagious viral disease characterized by high fever, severe prostration, and a pinkish rash changing in form from papules to pustules, which dry up and form scabs that are cast off, leaving pitted depressions. Technical name: variola

[C16: from small + pox. So called to distinguish it from the Great Pox, an archaic name for syphilis]

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

small•pox

(ˈsmɔlˌpɒks)

n.

an acute, highly contagious, febrile disease, caused by the variola virus and characterized by a pustular eruption that often leaves permanent pits or scars: eradicated worldwide by vaccination programs.

[1510–20]

small·pox

(smôl′pŏks′)

A highly infectious and often fatal disease caused by a virus and characterized by fever, headache, and severe pimples that result in extensive scarring. Smallpox was once a dreaded killer of children and caused the deaths of millions of Native Americans after the arrival of European settlers in the Americas. Following a worldwide vaccination campaign, smallpox was declared eradicated in 1980, although samples have been preserved in laboratories in the US and Russia. See Note at Jenner.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

smallpox - a highly contagious viral disease characterized by fever and weakness and skin eruption with pustules that form scabs that slough off leaving scars

variola, variola major

pox - a contagious disease characterized by purulent skin eruptions that may leave pock marks

alastrim, Cuban itch, Kaffir pox, milk pox, pseudosmallpox, pseudovariola, variola minor, West Indian smallpox, white pox - a mild form of smallpox caused by a less virulent form of the virus

pock - a pustule in an eruptive disease

smallpox

noun

Related words
adjective variolous

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

مَرَض الجدْري

neštovice

kopper

isorokko

himlõ

bólusótt, stórabóla

vaiolo vaioloso

kopper

оспа

smittkoppor

çiçek hastalığı

天花

smallpox

[ˈsmɔːlpɒks] N (Med) → viruela f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

smallpox

[ˈsmɔːlpɒks] n → variole fsmall-scale [ˌsmɔːlˈskeɪl] adj

[undertaking, business] → peu important(e), de petite envergure

[map, model] → à petite échellesmall screen n
the small screen → le petit écransmall-size [ˈsmɔːlsaɪz] small-sized [ˈsmɔːlsaɪzd] adj → petit(e)small talk n → papotage m
to make small talk → papotersmall-time [ˌsmɔːlˈtaɪm] adj [actor, celebrity] → de troisième ordre
a small-time thief → un voleur à la petite semainesmall town n (US) → petite ville fsmall-town [ˌsmɔːlˈtaʊn] adj → provincial(e)

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

smallpox

[ˈsmɔːlˌpɒks] n (Med) → vaiolo

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

small

(smoːl) adjective

1. little in size, degree, importance etc; not large or great. She was accompanied by a small boy of about six; There's only a small amount of sugar left; She cut the meat up small for the baby.

2. not doing something on a large scale. He's a small businessman.

3. little; not much. You have small reason to be satisfied with yourself.

4. (of the letters of the alphabet) not capital. The teacher showed the children how to write a capital G and a small g.

small ads

advertisements in the personal columns of a newspaper.

small arms

weapons small and light enough to be carried by a man. They found a hoard of rifles and other small arms belonging to the rebels.

small change

coins of small value. a pocketful of small change.

small hours

the hours immediately after midnight. He woke up in the small hours.

ˈsmallpox noun

a type of serious infectious disease in which there is a severe rash of large, pus-filled spots that usually leave scars.

small screen

television, not the cinema. This play is intended for the small screen.

ˈsmall-time adjective

(of a thief etc) not working on a large scale. a small-time crook/thief.

feel/look small

to feel or look foolish or insignificant. He criticized her in front of her colleagues and made her feel very small.

small·pox

n. viruela, enfermedad infecciosa viral que se manifiesta con un cuadro febril agudo y erupción de ampollas y pústulas diseminadas por todo el cuerpo.

smallpox

n viruela

References in classic literature ?

"Oh, Diana, do you suppose that it's possible you're really taking the smallpox? If you are I'll go and nurse you, you can depend on that.

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and I had to sew extra for punishment because she says a morgage is disgrace like stealing or smallpox and it will be all over town that we have one on our farm.

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He turned his head and rose at Thomson's entrance, a rather short, keen-looking young man, his face slightly pitted with smallpox, his mouth hard and firm, his eyes deep-set and bright.

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Smallpox--that is what it was; though how smallpox could come on board, when there had been no known cases ashore when we left Rangiroa, is beyond me.

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But a malignant disease, more fatal than the smallpox, broke out among the soldiers and sailors, and destroyed the greater part of them.

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Smallpox in 'Onolulu, two broken legs in Shanghai, pnuemonia in Unalaska, three busted ribs an' my insides all twisted in 'Frisco.

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A fine constitution doesn't insure one against smallpox or any other of those inevitable diseases.

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Mary Dusak was broad and brown of countenance, slightly marked by smallpox, but handsome for all that.

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Below the hat was a lean, long, sallow face, deeply pitted with the smallpox, and characterized, very remarkably, by eyes of two different colors -- one bilious green, one bilious brown, both sharply intelligent.

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Smallpox laid its hideous clutches upon him; leaving him unspeakably branded with its repulsive marks.

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"In fact it does, monseigneur, much pain; there is no man more unfortunate than I: I was handsome, the smallpox rendered me hideous; I am deprived of a great means of attraction; now, I am your principal clerk or something of that sort; I take great interest in your affairs, and if, at this moment, I were a pretty woman, I could render you an important service."

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But after three years of school under wonderful Paddy Byrne, Goldsmith became very ill with smallpox. He nearly died of it, and when he grew better he was plainer than ever, for his face was scarred and pitted by the disease.