Definitions

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

  • noun Any of several acute or chronic skin diseases characterized by groups of itching blisters.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An affection of the skin, consisting of eruptions (bullæ) of various sizes, from that of a pea to that of a walnut, usually with accompaniment of fever. Also called pompholyx and bladdery fever.
  • noun In entomology: [cap] A genus of plant-lice or aphids of the subfamily Pemphiginæ (Hartig, 1841).
  • noun An aphid of the genus Pemphigus: as, the vagabond pemphigus, P.ragabunda.

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

  • noun (Med.) A somewhat rare skin disease, characterized by the development of blebs upon different parts of the body.

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

  • noun pathology A severe autoimmune skin disease characterized by pustules and painful blisters, and which can be fatal.

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

  • noun a skin disease characterized by large thin-walled blisters (bullae) arising from normal skin or mucous membrane

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin pemphīgus, from Greek pemphīx, pemphīg-, pustule.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek πέμφιξ (pemphix, "pustule").

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Examples

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  • Ow, ow!

    July 10, 2007