chicken pox
See also: chickenpox
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From chicken + pox, under the influence of earlier hen-pox and swinepox, which formed larger blisters.
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -ɒks
Noun
chicken pox (usually uncountable, plural chicken poxes)
- (now rare, pathology) The blisters formed by the varicella zoster virus (VZV).
- Synonym: chicken pock
- (pathology) The highly contagious airborne disease caused by initial infection with varicella zoster virus, typically causing a skin rash that forms small itchy blisters.
- Synonym: varicella
- 2009 May 7, New York Times, page A12:
- Chickenpox parties, at which children gather so they can all be infected by a child who has the pox, are often held by parents who distrust chickenpox vaccine or want their children to have the stronger immunity that surviving a full-blown infection affords.
- (inexact, sometimes proscribed, pathology) Any disease causing similar symptoms.
Derived terms
Translations
disease
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See also
References
- “chickenpox, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2022.
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