murrain

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English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English moreyn, from Middle French morine, and Anglo-Norman mourine, moreyn, from Medieval Latin morticinium, ultimately from a form of Latin morior (to die).

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈmʌɹɪn/
  • (file)

Noun[edit]

murrain (countable and uncountable, plural murrains)

  1. (archaic) Plague, infectious disease, pestilence.
  2. (archaic) Curse.
    • 1802, Joanna Baillie, A Series of Plays on the Passions of the Mind, III, The Second Marriage: Act 2, Scene 5:
      Nurse. Let him take what he gets, an' a murrain to him! he had no business to bring her here to torment us all, after the dear lady we have lost.
    • 1825 June 22, [Walter Scott], chapter VII, in Tales of the Crusaders. [], volume II (The Betrothed), Edinburgh: [] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 187:
      A murrain on thy voice! it is enough to fray every hawk from the perch.
    • 1930, Ogden Nash, Lines to Be Mumbled at Ovington's:
      A murrain on you, Reverend Apse/I hope you get caught in a vicious moral lapse.
    • 1935, Ezra Pound, Canto XLV:
      Usura is a murrain, usura blunteth the needle in the maid’s hand and stoppeth the spinner’s cunning.
  3. (veterinary medicine, chiefly historical) Any of several highly infectious diseases of cattle, such as anthrax, or a particular epizootic thereof.

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