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View synonyms for fever

fever

[ fee-ver ]

noun

  1. an abnormal condition of the body, characterized by undue rise in temperature, quickening of the pulse, and disturbance of various body functions.
  2. an abnormally high body temperature.
  3. the number of degrees of such a temperature above the normal.
  4. any of a group of diseases in which high temperature is a prominent symptom:

    scarlet fever.

  5. intense nervous excitement:

    The audience was in a fever of anticipation.



verb (used with object)

  1. to affect with or as with fever:

    The excitement fevered him.

fever

/ ˈfiːvə /

noun

  1. an abnormally high body temperature, accompanied by a fast pulse rate, dry skin, etc febrilepyretic
  2. any of various diseases, such as yellow fever or scarlet fever, characterized by a high temperature
  3. intense nervous excitement or agitation

    she was in a fever about her party

“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


verb

  1. tr to affect with or as if with fever
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

fever

/ vər /

  1. A body temperature that is higher than normal. Fever is the body's natural response to the release of substances called pyrogens by infectious agents such as bacteria and viruses. The pyrogens stimulate the hypothalamus in the brain to conserve heat and increase the basal metabolic rate.


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Derived Forms

  • ˈfeverless, adjective
  • ˈfevered, adjective
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Other Words From

  • fever·less adjective
  • un·fevered adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of fever1

First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English fefer, from Latin febr-, stem of febris; reinforced by Anglo-French fevre, Old French fievre, from Latin, as above
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Word History and Origins

Origin of fever1

Old English fēfor , from Latin febris
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Idioms and Phrases

see cabin fever ; run a fever .
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Example Sentences

When you get a fever, your heart rate tends to increase, even before you notice other symptoms, so it can act as an early warning system.

Yellow fever, a mosquito-borne hemorrhagic disease that is common in South America and sub-Saharan Africa, annually infects about 200,000 people and causes an estimated 30,000 deaths.

The two cats that died were among four that had developed severe symptoms, such as jaundice and high fever.

A high dose of the vaccine produced severe side effects such as fever in 9 percent of volunteers, but a lower dose produced a severe side effect in only 1 percent of people.

It can scan people coming into an area to see if they have a fever.

Besides, victory fever had spread like wildfire throughout the Allied armies.

The sets—which, really, were a feat of design and direction—appeared to be remnants of a Lewis Carroll fever dream.

Future lives, careers and attitudes were being determined in this lightly regulated fever.

Spirits in Stanleyville were high, and a local 19-year-old was emboldened by independence fever.

Take Too Many Cooks: a fever dream of a segment that aired at 4:00am earlier this week.

Day by day these fretting anxieties and perplexities wasted her strength, and her fever grew higher and higher.

Père Bracasse was ill, suffering from rheumatism, bronchitis, fever and corns.

When Stanhope entered to him, he found his guest lying on a sofa, in a high state of fever, both from his wounds and agitation.

If the fever ends by crisis, the crisis is accompanied by a rapid and striking increase.

The spirillum of relapsing fever can be identified by the method for the malarial parasite in fresh blood.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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