jail fever
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jail fever
- /ˈdʒeɪl fiːvə/ UK
- /ˈdʒeɪl ˌfivər/ US
noun
- typhus spread in jails. A'LTHO this Fever neither arose in a Jail, nor a Hospital, yet it so exactly re-sembles the Jail Fever, both in the symptoms, causes, and method of cure, that I have not scrupled to treat of it under that name.
- any infectious disease spread in cramped and unhygienic conditions. John Pringle’s army service in the 1740s convinced him that an assortment of illnesses attributed to an unhealthy environment—“jail fever,” “camp fever,” “ship fever” and “putrid fever” —were in fact the same disease, generated by crowding but transmitted by contagion.
Talk about this word "jail fever." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/jail%20fever. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. jail fever. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/jail%20fever "jail fever." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/jail%20fever.
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@misc{jail_fever_2026,
title = {jail fever},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/jail%20fever},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
