rabies
(ˈreɪbɪiːz, now usu. ˈreɪbiːz, -ɪz)
[a. L. rabiēs, f. rabĕre to rage, rave. Cf. rage.]
Canine madness; hydrophobia: a contagious virus disease of dogs and other warm-blooded animals, which produces paralysis or a vicious excitability and in man causes a fatal encephalitis with throat spasm upon swallowing and convulsions. Also fig.
| 1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes 307/2 Rabbino, Rabi, Rabis, the Rabbies. 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 333 The rabies, which is a madnesse, caused by some peculiar poyson. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Madness, Dr. James relates the cure be made of dogs that were mad, and how he preserved others from the rabies. 1828 Lytton Pelham I. xx. 152 Finding Lord Vincent so disposed to the biting mood, I immediately directed his rabies towards Mr. Aberton. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) II. 284 Whenever rabies appears it is inevitably fatal. 1884 Graphic 22 Nov. 531/2 The alleged epidemic of rabies in South London. 1967 Swain & Dodds Clinical Virol. xiii. 184 Eradication of rabies can be achieved only when the total elimination of the reservoir of animal infection is possible. It has been achieved in Great Britain by rigid quarantine laws which govern the importation of all livestock. 1977 D. A. Warrell in C. Kaplan Rabies: the Facts iii. 32 In man the disease called rabies is a severe inflammation of the brain and spinal cord..associated with invasion of these tissues by rabies virus. 1980 Sci. Amer. Jan. 109/1 Fox rabies is particularly serious in Europe, where the disease has spread steadily at the rate of about 30 kilometers per year from east to west since World War II. |
| attrib. 1886 Pall Mall G. 17 Nov. 5/1 The mad dog with his rabies virus. 1887 British Med. Jrnl. 8 Jan. 82/2 A discussion on Pasteur's rabies-inoculations. 1976 Daily Tel. 20 July 3/3 A 32-year-old teacher, fined {pstlg}300 at Uxbridge for contravening the rabies regulations had the penalty reduced on appeal to {pstlg}100 yesterday. 1976 T. Heald Let Sleeping Dogs Die ii. 30 ‘But surely he got an injection?’ ‘Not even anti-tetanus. Let alone a rabies jab. It was only a little bite.’ |
Hence
rabiˈetic a., affected with rabies, rabid;
raˈbific a., causing rabies.
| 1879 Dolan Rabies or Hydrophobia (ed. 2) 213 The total extinction of the rabific contagion. 1886 Encyl. Brit. XX. 202 Rabific virus..obtained from a rabbit. |