street virus

noun

1. a virus, as rabies, obtained from a naturally infected animal and usually virulent, as opposed to a laboratory-attenuated strain.

Word History and Origins

Origin of street virus¹

First recorded in 1910–15

Example Sentences

"The high street virus has just taken over," Wright laments.

From The Guardian

If a portion of the brain of an animal dead from street virus is taken and made up in a dilution of one to five hundred, and this is injected, we find that it does not produce death.

From Project Gutenberg