tetanus
/ˈtɛt.ən.əs/ noun
Forms tetani tetanuses
- noun (pathology, usually uncountable) A serious and often fatal disease caused by the infection of an open wound with the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium tetani, found in soil and the intestines and faeces of animals.
- noun (physiology, countable) A state of muscle tension caused by sustained contraction arising from a rapid series of nerve impulses which do not allow the muscle to relax.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Latin tetanus, from Ancient Greek τέτανος (tétanos), from τείνω (teínō, “to stretch”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A painful and usually fatal disease, resulting generally from a wound, and having as its principal symptom persistent spasm of the voluntary muscles. When the muscles of the lower jaw are affected, it is called locked-jaw, or lickjaw, and it takes various names from the various incurvations of the body resulting from the spasm.
- noun That condition of a muscle in which it is in a state of continued vibratory contraction, as when stimulated by a series of induction shocks.
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “tetanus”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details