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rabies

UK/ˈɹeɪ.biːz/US/ˈɹeɪ.biːz/
nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,671 of 15,258neutraltechnical · an editor’s judgement

Rabies is a deadly viral disease passed on by an animal bite. Once symptoms appear it is almost always fatal.

It attacks the nervous system, which is where the old name hydrophobia comes from, since sufferers cannot swallow water. Vaccination after a bite works if given quickly, which is why any bite abroad is treated as urgent. Britain has been free of it in land animals for a century, and quarantine rules for pets existed almost entirely because of it. The adjective is rabid, which also means fanatical.

Definitions of rabies

  1. 1nounrabiesA fatal viral disease of the nervous system spread by animal bites.B2

    “He needed a course of injections against rabies.”

Where it comes from

  1. Latin

    rabiēs — rage, madness, fury

  2. English, today

    rabies

Latin rabiēs (“rage, madness, fury”). a doublet of rage.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 6 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

rabies in the wild

  • Cujo () is a 1981 horror novel by American writer Stephen King about a Saint Bernard who contracts rabies, then goes on a killing spree in his hometown.

    Cujo

  • ABLV is the seventh member of the genus Lyssavirus (which includes rabies virus) and the only Lyssavirus member present in Australia.

    Australian bat lyssavirus

  • The rabies vaccine does not confer cross-protective immunity to Mokola virus, and no other known treatment for MOKV exists.

    Mokola virus

  • Lagos bat virus (LBV) is a Lyssavirus of southern and central Africa that causes a rabies-like illness in mammals.

    Lagos bat virus

  • Duvenhage virus (DUVV) is a member of the genus Lyssavirus, which also contains the rabies virus.

    Duvenhage virus

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.