Tet"a*nus (?), n. [L., fr. Gr. , fr. stretched, to stretch.]
1. Med.
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.
<-- caused by the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium tetani. -->
2. Physiol.
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.
© Webster 1913.