ship fever

See also: ship-fever

English

Alternative forms

• ship-fever

Etymology

It was once common in the crowded conditions on ships.

Noun

ship fever (uncountable)

1. A form of typhus fever.
   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 21, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:

     "No fear of scurvy or ship fever this voyage. What with the ship's surgeon and this other doctor, our only danger will be from drug or pill."

Synonyms

• hospital fever
• jail fever
• putrid fever