• (America) IPA: /ˈmizəlz/
• (RP) IPA: /ˈmiːzəlz/

Either from Middle Dutch masels or Middle Low German maselen, both from Old High German masala.

measles (plural p)

1. (medicine) An acute and highly contagious disease which often afflicts children caused by the virus Measles morbillivirus and causing red rashes, fever, runny nose, coughing, and red eyes.
   • 1970, Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, page 78:

     Maybe it's the 'measles. They say they're going around the neighborhood.

   • 1990, International Journal of Epidemiology, volume 19, page 1073:

     In the camps a case of measles is defined as a generalized rash of three or more days duration, with a fever of at least 38.8°C.., and any one of the following: cough, coryza or conjunctivitis.

2. (medicine, obsolete) Any disease causing red rashes.
3. (obsolete) Used as an intensifier.
   • 1614 November 10 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Beniamin Iohnson [i.e., Ben Jonson], Bartholmew Fayre: A Comedie, […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Robert Allot, […], published 1631, →OCLC ↗, (please specify the page):

     Why the meazills, should you stand heere, with your traine...

4. (veterinary medicine) Synonym of cysticercosis: A disease of livestock or meat caused by the presence of tapeworm larvae.
5. (botany, obsolete) Any disease causing a tree's bark to become rough and irregular.
   • 1674, John Josselyn, An Account of Two Voyages to New-England, page 190:

     Their fruit-trees are subject to two diseases, the Meazels... and lowsiness.

6. (medicine) plural form of measle: a red spot forming part of a rash, (now) particularly those caused by M. morbillivirus.
   • 1599, "A.M." translating Osswald Gäbelkhover as The Boock of Physicke, p. 277:

     Others take a fether, and dippe it in the saide water, and therwith they annoynte all the Measells of the Face when they are come forth.

7. (figuratively) plural form of measle: any similar-looking red spot, particularly (printing) foxing.
   • 1867, Thomas Sutton et al., Dictionary of Photography, page 217:

     Measles. When prints are imperfectly fixed, the appearance presented is very similar to that of the same disease in the human subject. Hence the name.

   • 1929, Samuel Hoffenstein, “Mr Walter de la Mare”, in Poems in Praise of Practically Nothing, page 147:

     The stars, like measles, fade at last.

   • 1984, Gary Jennings, The Journeyer, page 671:

     The Lady Tofaa also had a red measle of paint on her forehead between her eyes.

   • 1990, John Grant, The Very Last Gambado, page 125:

     How do I get the measles out of an Indian paper print, Lovejoy?... Measles is trade nickname for foxing, those brown spots... that trouble books, prints, and watercolors.

8. (veterinary medicine) plural form of measle: the individual cysts of cysticercosis.
9. (botany, obsolete) plural form of measle: the individual blisters in the surface of a diseased tree's bark.
10. (US, espionage jargon) A discreet assassination made to look like death from any natural cause.
    • 1975, Miles Copeland, Beyond Cloak and Dagger: Inside the CIA, page 204:

      […] they would prefer having him "die of the measles," as wags at the CIA put it, than be punished by legal means. If there is no convenient way of administering the "measles," they may even favor simply letting him go.

    • 1977, Raymond Edward Palmer, The Making of a Spy, page 99:

      Such final solutions, sometimes referred to as termination with extreme prejudice, are known in the CIA as dying of the measles — that is, the death appears to be of natural causes.

• (disease caused by M. morbillivirus) morbilli, rubeola, measlings
• (intensifier) See Thesaurus:the dickens

• French: rougeole
• German: Masern
• Italian: morbillo
• Portuguese: sarampo
• Russian: корь
• Spanish: sarampión

• Spanish: sarampión

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative of measle

From Middle English mesel, from nrf mesel, from Old French mesel, from Late Latin misellus, from miser ("wretched, wretch") + -ellus ("-elle").

1. (obsolete) plural form of measle
2. (obsolete) Alternative form of mesels: Leprosy.