Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A highly infectious, usually fatal disease of rabbits that is caused by a pox virus and is characterized by many skin tumors similar to myxomas.
  • noun A condition characterized by the growth of many myxomas.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Biol.) a viral disease (usually fatal) of rabbits.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A disease of rabbits.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a viral disease (usually fatal) of rabbits

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Larkin's poem was first published in 1954, the year after Sage recalls myxomatosis first appearing in Hanmer.

    The Woman Who Did Fenton, James 2002

  • But even if everybody in the country had eaten rabbit three times a day it wouldn't have made a dent in the rabbit population, which went on increasing until a specifically anti-rabbit disease called myxomatosis was let loose

    BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition 2009

  • A new disease usually runs rampant because human beings have introduced it inadvertently — or, in the case of the rabbit disease myxomatosis, deliberately.

    Our Unwitting Germ Warfare on Animals Matt Ridley 2011

  • Buy weapon upgrades, structure upgrades and even spread myxomatosis!

    Archive 2009-02-01 2009

  • With the Nova bunny finally succumbing to myxomatosis last year, there has been a good number of people with nowhere to learn English.

    Second Life’s name familiar to many, gameplay a stranger to most Japanese 2008

  • His studies on myxomatosis, which he helped introduce to invasive rabbit populations, proved groundbreaking for understanding how a virus can change to become less virulent, while infected populations can evolve immunities.

    Virologist Helped Eradicate Smallpox Stephen Miller 2010

  • In Britain, the large blue ultimately became extinct when traditional grazing ceased and myxomatosis killed off rabbits that once helped keep the grass short on the warm meadows favoured by the ants and the butterfly.

    Large blue butterfly moves to Cotswolds 2010

  • One of the most vivid memories of those days is the year that the government introduced the hideous disease myxomatosis to control a plague of rabbits on the Sussex Downs.

    ɘloЯ 2010

  • But with his luck, any such rabbit would probably be struck down with myxomatosis.

    Archive 2008-05-01 Not a sheep 2008

  • But with his luck, any such rabbit would probably be struck down with myxomatosis.

    Best line of the weekend Not a sheep 2008

Comments

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  • Originally identified in laboratory rabbits in South America, the disease has been artificially introduced into Australia, Europe, and other localities to reduce rabbit populations.

    A slow, cruel way to die. Usage: 1972 R. ADAMS Watership Down ii. 8 "He had coolly...stood firm during the terrible onslaught of the myxomatosis."

    February 6, 2007

  • Nice word whose pattern of consonants and vowels - cvcvcvcvcvc - (the wye acting as a vowel in this instance) - is a palindromic pattern of consonants and vowels - when marked as "C" or "V" and listed as such, the letters of this word read the same forwards or backwards...

    November 15, 2010

  • Mrs. Peel claimed to have this when she didn't want to talk to Steed.

    June 20, 2012

  • Australian slang: myxo.

    April 5, 2014