Sweating sickness

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

sweating sickness
    n 1: a disease of cattle (especially calves)
    2: epidemic in the 15th and 16th centuries and characterized by
       profuse sweating and high mortality [syn: {sweating
       sickness}, {miliary fever}]

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Sweating \Sweat"ing\,
   a. & n. from {Sweat}, v.
   [1913 Webster]

   {Sweating bath}, a bath producing sensible sweat; a stove or
      sudatory.

   {Sweating house}, a house for sweating persons in sickness.
      

   {Sweating iron}, a kind of knife, or a piece of iron, used to
      scrape off sweat, especially from horses; a horse scraper.
      

   {Sweating room}.
   (a) A room for sweating persons.
   (b) (Dairying) A room for sweating cheese and carrying off
       the superfluous juices.

   {Sweating sickness} (Med.), a febrile epidemic disease which
      prevailed in some countries of Europe, but particularly in
      England, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
      characterized by profuse sweating. Death often occured in
      a few hours.
      [1913 Webster]