murrain
Meanings
Plural: murrains
Noun
- any disease of domestic animals that resembles a plague
- Infectious disease; pestilence, plague; (countable) sometimes used in curses such as a murrain on someone: an outbreak of such a disease; a plague.
- A widespread affliction, calamity, or destructive influx, especially when seen as divine retribution; a plague.
- Any of several highly infectious diseases of cattle or other livestock, such as anthrax, babesiosis, or rinderpest; or a particular epizootic thereof; also, an infectious disease affecting other animals, such as poultry.
- An infectious disease affecting plants.
- A poor-quality green-salted animal hide.
- Death, especially from an infectious disease.
- Rotting flesh, especially of an animal which has died from a disease; carrion.
Adj
- Disgusting or offensive, as if having an infectious disease; contemptible, despicable, loathsome, plaguey.
- Used as an intensifier: to a great extent; extreme, intense.
Adv
- Used as an intensifier: extremely, very.
Origin / Etymology
The noun is derived from Late Middle English morein, morine, moreyn (“(widespread) death; widespread sickness, plague; fatal disease; carnage; carrion”), from Anglo-Norman morine, mourine, moreyn (“death; widespread sickness, plague; carrion; cattle disease”), Middle French morine, and Old French morine, mourine, murine (“widespread sickness, plague; animal which has died from a disease”), from Late Latin morina (“plague”), probably from Latin morior (“to die; to decay, wither”).
The adjective and adverb are derived from the noun.
Cognates
* Italian morìa (“plague”)
* Latin morticīnus (“that has died naturally, dead; (relational) carrion”) (Medieval Latin morticinium)
* Occitan moria (“death; plague”)
* Old French morie (“death”) mourie (“flesh of animals that have died of disease”) (Middle French murie)
* Portuguese morrinha (“cattle plague”)
* Spanish morriña (“cattle plague”)
Synonyms
abject, absolutely, abundantly, acutely, all too, awfully, base, beggarly, beyond, blameworthy, but good, carrion, cheap, completely, contemptible, cringing, damn, dedecorous, degraded, deridable, derisible, despicable, despisable, dirty, discreditable, disdainable, disgraceful, dishonorable, disreputable, drastically, eminently, ever so, exceedingly, excessively, execrable, extraordinarily, extremely, greatly, groveling, highly, hugely, ignoble, ignominious, immensely, in spades, inglorious, insanely, intensely, jolly, lame, laughable, loathsome, low, ludicrous, main, mean, mean-spirited, mightily, miserable, murrain, murrainly, obscene, outrageous, paltry, passing, pitiable, pitiful, plebeian, positively, pretty, putrid, quite, reprehensible, reptile, reptilian, reptitious, ridiculous, right, risible, roynish, scald, scornworthy, scummy, scurvy, severely, shabby, shameful, simply, slavish, sleazy, slimy, sordid, sore, sorry, specially, strikingly, strongly, swith, terribly, trashy, truly, ugly, uncommendable, uncool, unmentionable, unsophisticated, unwashed, unworthy, vastly, very, very much, vile, violently, vulgar, way, way too, weak, wicked, wildly, worthless, wretched
Scrabble Score: 9
murrain is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordmurrain is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
murrain is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary