Mea"sles (?), n. [From lst Measle.]
Leprosy; also, a leper.
[Obs.]
© Webster 1913.
Mea"sles, n.; pl. in form, but used as singular in senses 1, 2, & 3. [D. mazelen; akin to G. masern, pl., and E. mazer, and orig. meaning, little spots. See Mazer.]
1. Med.
A contagious febrile disorder commencing with catarrhal symptoms, and marked by the appearance on the third day of an eruption of distinct red circular spots, which coalesce in a crescentic form, are slightly raised above the surface, and after the fourth day of the eruption gradually decline; rubeola.
Measles commences with the ordinary symptoms of fever.
Am. Cyc.
2. Veter. Med.
A disease of cattle and swine in which the flesh is filled with the embryos of different varieties of the tapeworm.
3.
A disease of trees.
[Obs.]
4. pl. Zool.
The larvae of any tapeworm (Taenia) in the cysticerus stage, when contained in meat. Called also bladder worms.
© Webster 1913.