DISEASE, n. Dizeze. [dis and ease.]

1. In its primary sense, pain, uneasiness, distress, and so used by Spenser; but in this sense, obsolete.
2. Any deviation from health in function or structure; the cause of pain or uneasiness; distemper; malady; sickness; disorder; any state of a living body in which the natural functions of the organs are interrupted or disturbed, either by defective or preternatural action, without a disrupture of parts by violence, which is called a wound. The first effect of disease is uneasiness or pain, and the ultimate effect is death. A disease may affect the whole body, or a particular limb or part of the body. We say, a diseased limb; a disease in the head or stomach; and such partial affection of the body is called a local or topical disease. The word is also applied to the disorders of other animals, as well as to those of man; and to any derangement of the vegetative functions of plants. The shafts of disease shoot across our path in such a variety of courses, that the atmosphere of human life is darkened by their number, and the escape of an individual becomes almost miraculous. – Buckminster.
3. A disordered state of the mind or intellect, by which the reason is impaired.
4. In society, vice; corrupt state of morals. Vices are called moral diseases. A wise man converses with the wicked, as a physician with the sick, not to catch the disease, but to cure it. – Maxin of Antisthenes.
5. Political or civil disorder, or vices in a state; any practice which tends to disturb the peace of society, or impede or prevent the regular administration of government. The instability, injustice and confusion introduced into the public councils have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have every where perished. – Federalist, Madison.

1. To interrupt or impair any or all the natural and regular functions of the several organs of a living body; afflict with pain or sickness; to make morbid; used chiefly in the passive participle, as a diseased body, a diseased stomach; but diseased may here be considered as an adjective.
2. To interrupt or render imperfect the regular functions of the brain, or of the intellect; to disorder; to derange.
3. To infect; to communicate disease to, by contagion.
4. To pain; to make uneasy. – Locke.

1. Lack of ease; uneasiness; trouble; vexation; disquiet.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   So all that night they passed in great disease. Spenser.

   To shield thee from diseases of the world. Shak.

2. To deprive of ease] to disquiet; to trouble; to distress.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   His double burden did him sore disease. Spenser.

3. An alteration in the state of the body or of some of its organs, interrupting or disturbing the performance of the vital functions, and causing or threatening pain and weakness; malady; affection; illness; sickness; disorder; -- applied figuratively to the mind, to the moral character and habits, to institutions, the state, etc.
   
   

   Diseases desperate grown,
   By desperate appliances are relieved. Shak.

   The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public counsels have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have every where perished. Madison.

   Disease germ. See under Germ.

   Syn. -- Distemper; ailing; ailment; malady; disorder; sickness; illness; complaint; indisposition; affection. -- Disease, Disorder, Distemper, Malady, Affection. Disease is the leading medical term. Disorder mean(?) much the same, with perhaps some slight reference to an irregularity of the system. Distemper is now used by physicians only of the diseases of animals. Malady is not a medical term, and is less used than formerly in literature. Affection has special reference to the part, organ, or function disturbed; as, his disease is an affection of the lungs. A disease is usually deep- seated and permanent, or at least prolonged; a disorder is often slight, partial, and temporary; malady has less of a technical sense than the other terms, and refers more especially to the suffering endured. In a figurative sense we speak of a disease mind, of disordered faculties, and of mental maladies.

4. To derange the vital functions of; to afflict with disease or sickness; to disorder; -- used almost exclusively in the participle diseased.
   
   

   He was diseased in body and mind. Macaulay.