DROPSY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dropsy mean? 

• DROPSY (noun)
  The noun DROPSY has 1 sense:

1. swelling from excessive accumulation of watery fluid in cells, tissues, or serous cavities

  Familiarity information: DROPSY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DROPSY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Swelling from excessive accumulation of watery fluid in cells, tissues, or serous cavities

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

dropsy; edema; hydrops; oedema

Hypernyms ("dropsy" is a kind of...):

lump; puffiness; swelling (an abnormal protuberance or localized enlargement)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dropsy"):

angioedema; atrophedema; giant hives; periodic edema; Quincke's edema (recurrent large circumscribed areas of subcutaneous edema; onset is sudden and it disappears within 24 hours; seen mainly in young women, often as an allergic reaction to food or drugs)

lymphedema (swelling (usually in the legs) caused by lymph accumulating in the tissues in the affected areas)

scleredema (a skin disease marked by hard edema of the tissue usually beginning in the face)

cystoid macular edema (a specific pattern of swelling in the central retina)

anasarca (generalized edema with accumulation of serum in subcutaneous connective tissue)

chemosis (edema of the mucous membrane of the eyeball and eyelid lining)

papilledema (swelling of the optic disc (where the optic nerve enters the eyeball); usually associated with an increase in intraocular pressure)

brain edema; cerebral edema (swelling of the brain due to the uptake of water in the neuropile and white matter)

Derivation:

dropsical (swollen with an excessive accumulation of fluid)

 Context examples 

A. punctata is commonly found in soil and water and can cause dropsy in fish.

(Aeromonas punctata, NCI Thesaurus)

“Nay, nay,” cried Alleyne, “this was a holy man who had journeyed to Jerusalem, and acquired a dropsy by running from the house of Pilate to the Mount of Olives.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It ill becomes me to prate too much of what I have endured for the faith, and yet, since you have observed it, I must tell you that this thickness and roundness of the waist is caused by a dropsy brought on by over-haste in journeying from the house of Pilate to the Mount of Olives.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)