Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A febrile condition in which there are alternating periods of chills, fever, and sweating. Used chiefly in reference to the fevers associated with malaria.
- n. A chill or fit of shivering.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To cause a shivering in; strike with a cold fit.
- n. An acute or violent fever.
- n. Intermittent fever; a malarial fever characterized by regularly returning paroxysms, each in well-developed forms, consisting of three stages marked by successive fits, cold or shivering (the chill), hot or burning, and sweating; chills and fever.
- n. Chilliness; a chill not resulting from disease.
Wiktionary
- n. An acute fever.
- n. An intermittent fever, attended by alternate cold and hot fits.
- n. The cold fit or rigor of the intermittent fever; as, fever and ague.
- n. A chill, or state of shaking, as with cold.
- n. A former name for malaria.
- v. To strike with an ague, or with a cold fit.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To strike with an ague, or with a cold fit.
- n. An acute fever.
- n. An intermittent fever, attended by alternate cold and hot fits.
- n. The cold fit or rigor of the intermittent fever.
- n. A chill, or state of shaking, as with cold.
WordNet 3.0
- n. successive stages of chills and fever that is a symptom of malaria
- n. a fit of shivering or shaking
- n. a mark (') placed above a vowel to indicate pronunciation
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old French (fievre) ague, sharp (fever), from Medieval Latin (febris) acūta, from Latin, feminine of acūtus; see acute.
Examples
“According to the Septuagint, "ague" is "the jaundice," which disorders the eyes and produces great depression of spirits.”
“The brother who has been suffering from ague is probably her elder brother John.”
Letters from Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple (1652-54)
“He even had hung the blanket round his shoulders because, presumably also for several hours, he had been rhythmically shaken by a kind of ague and had felt the nerve of his tooth pulsing in his temples.”
“I always get "ague" for "malarial fever" on crossword puzzles, so that's an easy one.”
“And that until the beginning of the 20th century, "ague" the original English word for malaria was a cause of high morbidity and mortality in parts of the British Isles, particularly in tidal marshes such as those at Westminster?”
“In the next section I will ague that in fact ID is not inherently supernatural, and hence ID can count as science even if the restriction to naturalism is part of the scientific methodology.”
“But I think these decisions are wrong, as I ague in the paper.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » New Article, “Ex Ante Regulation of Computer Search and Seizure”
“Then I had a chill, and for a time shook as with an ague.”
“He began to shake as with an ague-fit, till the gun fell from his hand with a splash.”
“I was looking up from the galley door, and I could see him trembling, as if with ague, in every limb.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ague’.
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On with their heads!
Words that make other words with the addition of one letter at the beginning. The resulting words are tagged "behead".
men, his, yes, any, iota, limb, aged, laid, land, lead, read, word and 315 more...
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•Unexpected Pronunciation, Now! with Public Acc...
Inspired to publicity by the conversation at segway. Thanks, pals!
boatswain, clapboard, waistcoat, victuals, forecastle, solder, colonel, ensign, worcestershire sauce, creatinine, coelacanth, banal and 77 more...
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Words with unusual spellings or pronunciations
Herein are listed words with oddball spellings and words whose pronunciation does not reflect the spelling.
eleemosynary, Wednesday, colonel, posslq, zaqqum, qwerty, cinquefoil, qibla(h), minuscule, Cholmondeley, polyphloisboian, ptisan and 67 more...
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The Lies of Locke Lamora
Words and phrases from Scott Lynch's book, The Lies of Locke Lamora
constable, windfall, sternum, commensurate, disinter, grotty, thresher shark, savvy, miser, reticent, magnanimous, trowel and 301 more...
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The Satanic Verses
A list containing unknown words from the novel!
spurt, wax, dour, ell, usurer, burnished, myrrh, navel, ply, bawdy, jot, castigate and 70 more...
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Derideo's Words
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Permutations
There are 17576 different sequences of three letters (26 x 26 x 26). How many of them occur in words? General rules of engagement: mononyms only, lower case preferred to upper case, short preferred...
aaargh, niqaabi, Isaac, raad, baaed, haaf, laager, aah, kamaaina, Naajaat, aak, aalii and 637 more...
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The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha
Words I met while reading Cervantes' story.
lance, hale, lanthorn-jaws, knight-errantry, nay, expostulate, puling, massy, agreeable delusions, pasteboard, bestrid, sallied and 148 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 2766 more...
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bobodod's Words
cultie, screwery, wanker, truthiness, harangue, mediocre, ragamuffin, elysian, spoonerism, loquacious, apostle, sulk and 240 more...
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Damieng's Words
lupine, sapor, boz imp, imp, ovine, saracen, haberdashery, tiebar, shill, cutler, cutaway, lucite and 218 more...
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Vocab
All the words I've come across whose definitions I did not know then.
aberration, abrogate, abscond, abstruse, acolyte, actuate, adulation, advert, aggrandize, aggro, ague, alimony and 273 more...
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Twitchy
The (not always so) smoovements; scattered, oscillating, jerky, and unpredictable.
palpitation, scravel, jactitate, pounce, wobble, vibrate, undulate, didder, effleurage, flail, ague, swerve and 169 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (A)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
abalone, abbey, abundant, aconite, acorn, addled, adept, aeon, aerie, aglow, ague, aire and 99 more...
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Really Cool Four-Letter Words
I marvel at the amazing variety of four-letter words in the English language. And that's not even counting really common (to me) words like fuck.
ibis, pelf, sofa, iota, oboe, lava, icon, sped, puha, pulp, puma, kyat and 150 more...
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Quaintnesses
For those who wish no words were ever forgotten
opprobrium, tedium, encomium, odium, ire, enmity, beguile, wile, brazen, popinjay, squit, hoity-toity and 1137 more...
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