Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An acute, infectious, usually fatal viral disease of the central nervous system that is transmitted by the bite of infected animals and occurs in many mammals, including dogs, cats, raccoons, and bats.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An extremely fatal infectious disease of man and many other animals, with predominant nervous symptoms.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Same as hydrophobia (b); canine madness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun pathology A viral disease that causes acute encephalitis in warm-blooded animals and people, characterised by abnormal behaviour such as excitement, aggressiveness, and dementia, followed by paralysis and death.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an acute viral disease of the nervous system of warm-blooded animals (usually transmitted by the bite of a rabid animal); rabies is fatal if the virus reaches the brain

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin rabiēs, rage, from rabere, to rave.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin rabiēs ("rage, madness, fury"), from rabiō ("I am angry, I am mad, I rave").

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