tubercular

comparative more tubercular · superlative most tubercular

1. Of, pertaining to, or having tuberculosis.

   As he grew older, his tubercular thinness tended toward emaciation.

   1924 November 24, “Critical Inspection of a Myth”, in Time

   3 more examples

   He set up business in Sydney, the little capital city of one of the middle Southern states, lived soberly and industriously under the attentive eye of a folk still raw with defeat and hostility, and finally, his good name founded and admission won, he married a gaunt tubercular spinstress, ten years his elder, but with a nest egg and an unshakable will to matrimony.

   1929, Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, Part One, Chapter 1

   There had been, too, all the long weeks of Rosie’s tubercular dying to go through.

   1941, Emily Carr, chapter 5, in Klee Wyck

   2012, Will Self, “Kafka’s Wound, A digital essay” London Review of Books website, The adult Kafka – the Kafka vermiculated by tubercular bacilli after having been played on for decades, as a demonic organist might press fleshy keys and pull bony stops, by his own relentless neurasthenia – reached a mystical appreciation of his youthful velleity, characterising it as a desire both to expertly hammer together a table and at the same time ‘do nothing’.

   Synonyms: tuberculous, tuberculate

2. Relating to or reminiscent of the wheezing sounds associated with the breathing of tuberculosis patients.

   Crows on the roof beat their wings and made their low tubercular moan.

   2007, Declan Hughes, chapter 1, in The Colour of Blood

   2 more examples

   The engine heaved. […] The thing sounded like a tubercular tugboat engine without a muffler.

   1994, John DeChancie, David Bischoff, chapter 9, in Masters of Spacetime, Crossroad Press, published 2015

   His voice? A raspy, nasal and welcoming instrument, with a tubercular kind of charisma.

   2016 October 8, Brad Wheeler, “Old Dylan and Stones deliver at new Desert Trip music festival”, in The Globe and Mail

3. Having, being, or relating to tubercles.

   “ORANGE ORCHID” “SPOTTED ORCHID” […] Dorsal appendage of the hood of column smooth, tubercular and notched at the end.

   1930, Emily Pelloe, West Australian Orchids, page 13

   Synonyms: tuberculate

plural tuberculars

1. datedA person who has tuberculosis.

   They are the tuberculars, the psychiatrics, and the older men suffering from chronic conditions. All of those men are totally disabled.

   1954, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations, Hearings, page 907