dysentery

noun

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dys·en·tery | \ ˈdi-sᵊn-ˌter-ē

, -ˌte-rē \

plural dysenteries

Definition of dysentery

1 : a disease characterized by severe diarrhea with passage of mucus and blood and usually caused by infection

2 : diarrhea

Examples of dysentery in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Meder died in captivity in China of beri-beri and dysentery on Dec. 11, 1943. — Sig Christenson, San Antonio Express-News, 8 Sep. 2021 The sap also is rumored to have healing properties like healing wounds, lowering fevers, and treating dysentery. — Andrea Romano, Travel + Leisure, 21 Aug. 2021 State clinics diagnosed the children with the stomach flu or respiratory infections, but tests performed by private clinics consistently showed shigella, the bacterium that causes dysentery. — Masha Gessen, The New Yorker, 19 July 2021 In late 2018, dysentery broke out in several public preschools in Moscow. — Masha Gessen, The New Yorker, 19 July 2021 But medicine still had nothing to offer a small child who contracted dysentery from microbes in animal milk or drinking water. — Perri Klass, Harper's Magazine, 25 May 2021 At the beginning of the twentieth century, almost a hundred years after Louisa Adams died of dysentery, there were only a couple of ways that parents, whether powerful or penniless, could guard against infant mortality. — Perri Klass, Harper's Magazine, 25 May 2021 Players struggle to keep people and oxen alive in the face of starvation, dysentery and other dangers. — Livia Gershon, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 May 2021 Diseases like smallpox, measles, and dysentery killed two-thirds of the 1 million people who died in the Civil War. — Patrick Skerrett, STAT, 28 Apr. 2021

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'dysentery.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.