Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various highly infectious diseases of cattle, as anthrax.
- n. Obsolete A pestilence or dire disease.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A disease affecting domestic animals, especially cattle; a cattle-plague or epizoötic disease of any kind; in a more limited sense, the same as foot-and-mouth disease (which see, under foot).
- Affected with murrain.
Wiktionary
- n. archaic Plague, infectious disease, pestilence.
- n. veterinary medicine Any of several highly infectious diseases of cattle such as anthrax.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Far.) An infectious and fatal disease among cattle.
- adj. Having, or afflicted with, murrain.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any disease of domestic animals that resembles a plague
Etymologies
- From Anglo-Norman mourine, moreyn, Middle French morine, ultimately from a form of Latin mori ("to die"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English moreine, from Old French morine, from Medieval Latin morina, from Latin morī, to die; see mer- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Egyptian cattle suffered a "murrain" -- with no apparent cause other than a divine curse.”
“The disease was called murrain or distemper, and its malignity known, but not for a century was the cause ascertained and direct effort made for cure and eradication.”
“What the murrain is the matter now — Arc yoir not aQiam*d, wife, to dcficoy things wilfully thus — when thou knoweft how chargeable necefiaries arc Begone Jeremy, and mind the fliop.”
Internet Archive: A Collection of the Most Esteemed Farces and Entertainments, Performed on ...
“The 'murrain' was so deadly to oxen and sheep that, according to Walsingham, dogs and ravens eating them dropped down dead.”
“When that nomenclature crossed the Atlantic to the United States in 1869, Harper’s Weekly put it that Liverpool was informing the State Department that “a contagion called murrain, or hoof-and-mouth disease, has broken out.””
Simon & Schuster: The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time
“That is why I say that the murrain was the best friend that the borel folk ever had.”
“That is why I say that the murrain was the best friend that the borel folk ever had. ”
“The cattle murrain in Upper Egypt continued to rage, long past the season when it normally abated; virtually all the cattle in Luxor had been infected now and were dead or dying.”
“There was such a severe murrain among the cattle on this expedition that it almost happened that not a single beast was left for such a large army but all died, to the last head.”
““A murrain on thee, thou lazy losel!” said Rudolph — “Thou art the only sluggard of thy kyn.””
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘murrain’.
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phrontistery - m
from phrontistery.info
malm, marc, marl, maya, mazy, meet, mel, mew, mewling, mho, miasma, micaceous and 898 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Quacksalvers et al. Nostrum
Bring forth the cathartic illumination on malignant,maniacal,medical,menage a trios and more egotists stymie
culpability, piousfraud, capacitous, rhabdomyolysis, scapula, idiosyncrasy, quiescent, malignant, nefarious, sociological, sociopath, pathogen and 202 more...
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Hey! L...
for the same
ichthyarchy, thalassic, nip-cheese, cerement, manavalins, rockweed, polder, semipalmate, blue peter, curragh, crowfoot, cat and 158 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 1161 more...
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Awesome Words, Part 1: Less Common
These are words that I have learnt over the years and want to remember
epithalamium, hustings, verger, atheling, moue, pendulous, pendragon, funicular, pericope, fettle, eleemosynary, moot and 160 more...
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ulyssean
... as in "by James Joyce"
stately, plump, aloft, gurgling, untonsured, chrysostomos, jowl, parapet, jesuit, indigestion, scutter, noserag and 688 more...
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looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1408 more...
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The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of ...
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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technomom's Words
misology, sacerdotal, omphaloskepsis, jimjams, incunabulum, repose, trecento, chimera, tridecennary, tenebrous, purblind, floruit and 207 more...
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Ulysses
This is a list of the more difficult English words found in James Joyce's Ulysses. It will continually be updated as I read along. The list is in reverse chronological order, meaning that the last ...
equine, untonsured, corpuscle, prelate, parapet, dactyl, jejune, lancet, jalap, barbican, valise, dewsilky and 377 more...
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Literarie: The Tragedy of Coriolanus
A play by William Shakespeare.
sufferance, cram, garner, embracement, freelier, mammock, cambric, stitchery, cloven, murrain, manifest housekeeper, a crack'd drachma! and 88 more...
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The Old Farmstead
quickset, bigg, bullimung, simila, grudgins, misulane, hemp, milk-pan, churn, verjuice, rewannum, hurdle and 83 more...
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Freerice
katabatic, cozen, depurate, entelechy, torrefy, talion, spatchcock, springhalt, poleyn, syncope, leister, palladium and 51 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for murrain.
knitandpurl "Mrs. Gaddson was there, searching eagerly through her Bible for murrains and agues and emerods."
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, p 397 May 29, 2010
bilby "(Enter certain Romans, with spoils.)
FIRST ROMAN: This will I carry to Rome.
SECOND ROMAN: And I this.
THIRD ROMAN: A murrain on't! I took this for silver."
- William Shakespeare, 'The Tragedy of Coriolanus'. Aug 28, 2009
brtom "... a murrain seize the dolt ..."
Joyce, Ulysses, 14 Jan 19, 2007