disease

plural diseases · alternative dis-ease

1. countableuncountablemedicineAn abnormal condition of a human, animal or plant that causes discomfort or dysfunction; distinct from injury insofar as the latter is usually instantaneously acquired.

   The tomato plants had some kind of disease that left their leaves splotchy and their fruit withered.

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   The exposed workers had some kind of disease that left their skin splotchy and their faces withered.

   […] diſeaſes deſperate growne, By deſperate appliance are releeued, Or not at all.

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 272, column 2

   The instability, injustice, and confusion, introduced into the public councils, have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have every where perished; […]

   November 22, 1787, James Madison Jr., Federalist No. 10

   Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   […] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes […] And then, when you see [the senders], you probably find that they are the most melancholy old folk with malignant diseases.

   1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, →OL

   Synonyms: disorder, illness, sickness, ailment, malady · Antonyms: health, healthiness, healthfulness, wellness

2. countablefigurativelyuncountableAny abnormal or harmful condition, as of society, people's attitudes, way of living etc.

   War is not man's great and terrible disease; war is a symptom, a result. The real disease is the virus of national sovereignty.

   1955, The Urantia Book, Paper 134:6.7

3. countableuncountableA lack of ease; uneasiness; trouble; vexation; disquiet.

   To ſhield thee from diſeaſes of the world, […]

   c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

present singular third person diseases · participle present diseasing · participle past diseased · past diseased · alternative dis-ease

1. transitiveTo infect with a disease.
2. obsoletetransitiveTo cause unease; to annoy, irritate.

   […]mote he ſoft himſelfe appeaſe, And fairely fare on foot, how euer loth; His double burden did him ſore diſeaſe.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 208

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   Whyll he yett ſpeake there cam won from the rulers off the ſynagogis houſſe which ſayde to hym: Thy doughter is deed diſeaſe not the maſter.

   1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Luke viij:[49], folio lxxxix, recto