Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Complete or partial muscle paralysis, often accompanied by loss of sensation and uncontrollable body movements or tremors.
- n. A weakening or debilitating influence.
- n. An enfeebled condition or debilitated state thought to result from such an influence.
- n. A fit of strong emotion marked by the inability to act: "Flaherty dithered in a little palsy of indignation” ( Anthony Burgess).
- v. To paralyze.
- v. To deprive of strength.
- v. To make helpless, as with fear.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A weakening, suspension, or abolition of muscular power or sensation; paralysis. See paralysis.
- Palsied.
- To paralyze; affect with palsy or as with palsy; deprive of action or energy.
- To suffer from palsy; be affected with palsy.
Wiktionary
- n. Complete or partial muscle paralysis of a body part, often accompanied by a loss of feeling and uncontrolled body movements such as shaking.
- v. to paralyse, either completely or partially
- adj. Chummy, friendly.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Paralysis, complete or partial. See paralysis.
- v. To affect with palsy, or as with palsy; to deprive of action or energy; to paralyze.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a condition marked by uncontrollable tremor
- n. loss of the ability to move a body part
- v. affect with palsy
Etymologies
- Middle English palsie, alteration of Old French paralisie, alteration of Latin paralysis; see paralysis.
Examples
“Living with cerebral palsy is a continuous process of exploration.”
“My girlfriend, in a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy, is one of the kindest souls I have ever met and makes her more beautiful to me than any string of pageant contestants.”
“For some people, a child with cerebral palsy is a tragedy.”
“Cerebral palsy is a muscle motor disorder that is the result of damage to the central nervous system.”
USATODAY.com - No challenge too great for these kids to play through
“And so it was that not only did I catch palsy from the old veteran, but the whole park caught palsy.”
“The palsy is a disease in which the physician's skill commonly fails; it was therefore a great evidence of his faith in the power of Christ, to come to him for a cure, which was above the power of natural means to effect.”
“Excerpted and condensed from Glenda’s recently released autobiography ‘I’ll Do It Myself’, in which she intimately shares her life story to show others cerebral palsy is not a death sentence, but rather a life sentence.”
“Unless I’ve missed a memo in the last forty years, cerebral palsy is still a non-progressive, lifelong neurological disorder.”
“I once developed Bell's palsy, which is a paralysis of the face.”
“There is a risk for twins, anything from mortality in first year of life, cerebral palsy, that is profoundly increased.”
Questions Over Octuplets Multiply - The Lede Blog - NYTimes.com
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘palsy’.
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diseases that make lovely baby girl's names
usually i try to restrict this to sexually transmitted diseases, but some of the others are just so musical. Syphilis, it should be noted, would make a lovely boy's name, but that is outside the sc...
gonorrhea, chlamydia, roseola, rubella, angina, atrophy, candida, cholera, jaundice, palsy, leukemia, alopecia and 50 more...
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