Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A disease such as chickenpox or smallpox, characterized by purulent skin eruptions that may leave pockmarks.
- n. Syphilis.
- n. Archaic Misfortune and calamity.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A disease characterized by eruptive pocks or pustules upon the body. As used by the writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the word generally means smallpox, but also, and especially in later use, the French pox, or syphilis. See chicken-pox, smallpox, syphilis.
- To communicate the pox or venereal disease to.
Wiktionary
- n. pathology A disease characterized by purulent skin eruptions that may leave pockmarks.
- n. Syphilis.
- v. transitive, dated To infect with the pox, or syphilis.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Med.) Strictly, a disease by pustules or eruptions of any kind, but chiefly or wholly restricted to three or four diseases, -- the smallpox, the chicken pox, and the vaccine and the venereal diseases.
- v. To infect with the pox, or syphilis.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a common venereal disease caused by the treponema pallidum spirochete; symptoms change through progressive stages; can be congenital (transmitted through the placenta)
- n. a contagious disease characterized by purulent skin eruptions that may leave pock marks
Etymologies
- From Middle English pokkes, plural of the ancestor of pock (which see). (Wiktionary)
- Alteration of pocks, from Middle English, pl. of pocke, pokke; see pock. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Bozo The Neoclown says: one again pox is wrong. bill clinton has government run health care insurance thanks to his stint as president. much like the geriatrics who watch pox all day, also covered by government run medicare.”
“Now as to the first Inoculation for the small pox is almost always a great mitigator of the evils of that disease.”
“Nothing discredits an administration like attacking a news organization. pox is not a news organization.”
“Bozo The Neoclown says: so, lemmie get this straight. maybe one percent of the population of this country tunes in pox news and cancervatards crow this is a stunning success?”
“I think the incubation time for chicken pox is under a week though, right?”
“Chicken pox is usually fairly harmless, but it can, under certain circumstances, be extremely dangerous.”
“In China small-pox is believed to date from B.C. 1200; but the chronology of the Middle Kingdom still awaits the sceptic.”
“Ron says: vaccinating for chicken pox is stupid, Albert.”
“I still think that pathetic picture of her with her pox is about the most heart-wrenching picture I’ve seen.”
“The small-pox is a very grievous and painful disease, and would be much more terrible than it is but that we know the extremity of it ordinarily lasts but a few days; how grievous then was the disease of Job, who was smitten all over with sore boils or grievous ulcers, which made him sick at heart, put him to exquisite torture, and so spread themselves over him that he could lie down no way for any ease.”
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon)
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pox’.
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Very Silly Words
A list of very silly sounding words, as well as words that are fun to say
badot, gardyloo, dingbat, gaffer, kine, haberdashery, forsooth, whey-faced, hoddypeak, brouhaha, widdershins, decemnovenarianize and 115 more...
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EN - 3-letter words of the pattern CVC
With the exception of abbreviations and mosaic words all types of words (proper names, past tense of verbs, etc.) are allowed.
for, was, not, his, but, has, had, can, her, him, new, now and 339 more...
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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3 Letter Words
A list of English words that are three letters long.
ace, act, ade, ado, add, ads, age, ago, ail, air, aim, all and 397 more...
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Xcessive
Valid 3-letter words with an x. Also, longer words with more than one x in them.
wax, fix, tux, box, sex, max, six, aux, pox, hex, tax, mix and 78 more...
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X Marks the Spot
Words ending in "x" (except proper nouns and trademarks)
ax, ex, ox, soapbox, smallpox, six, sex, sax, rex, pressbox, climax, chickenpox and 208 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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billfence's Words
quotidian, flux, sawbuck, horsefeathers, chalcedony, harp, no, fox, tennis, badminton, flue, charm and 186 more...
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kirstenio's Words
lascivious, transcendant, phantasmagoria, salacious, beatitude, solitude, pseudo, pretentious, inanity, sublimation, clobber, obscurity and 186 more...
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snarkout's Words
agenbite, scandent, vulpine, ratel, corvid, magpie, meline, musteline, ecdysiast, waxwing, abecedarian, guillotine and 111 more...
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ktrey's wordlist
Words that I like.
Many may be lexicographically impotent due to a lack of citations and definition. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify this eventually.velleity, dispositive, bloviate, bibulous, fungible, concupiscence, avuncular, carnaptious, thrawn, hypocoristic, diegesis, lagniappe and 928 more...
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elvesoncrack's Words
lachrymose, blustering, fjord, chihuahua, chiffon, catalytic, stile, gefilte, prosh, thwart, ralph, ickle and 379 more...
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madmelanie's Words
monkey, folderol, snark, snarky, flibbertigibbet, faith, asshat, pirouette, avuncular, exegesis, memento mori, verisimilitude and 379 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Fun Words
Words that have funny meanings or are just fun to say.
kumquat, chimichanga, sarsparilla, rutabaga, rumpus, flummox, encrusted, prestidigitation, pomegranate, preposterous, dentiloquist, sepulchre and 323 more...
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Tamara's Words
ennui, je ne sais quoi, libertine, dilettante, raconteur, awry, nerdy, ridiculousness, cinnamon, snarky, somnambulist, truthiness and 101 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pox.
john Well, to repine is to be sad, or to yearn. And the phrase "a pox on" is basically used to curse something. So I'll guess that a modern English translation might be "to hell with sadness and yearning."
Though if it's a jaunty little dance number, I'm probably wrong. Nov 3, 2010
christiane123 William Turner (1775 -1851) wrote a piece for recorder called "A pox on repining" - Can anyone enlighten me as to what this means?? Nov 3, 2010