a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

Example Sentences

The flu is an infection of the nose, throat, and lungs.

Your best defense is to wash your hands often, especially during cold and flu season.

These could provide a three-month head start in making seasonal flu vaccines.

EXPAND

The flu is an infection of the nose, throat, and lungs.

Your best defense is to wash your hands often, especially during cold and flu season.

These could provide a three-month head start in making seasonal flu vaccines.

Vaccines being made to protect people from swine flu may not be so healthy for threatened species of sharks.

The best way to beat bird flu and other zoonotic diseases is to keep humans and wildlife healthy.

If the flu virus doesn't kill you, your own immune system might.

The flu is a contagious respiratory disease caused by an influenza virus.

Journalists serve the public with their daily reports about our studies of flu vaccines and voting patterns and hominid fossils.

In fact, a pandemic of mild flu ought to be easier to control than several local epidemics as occur every year.

Why the flu is worse in winter than summer has long baffled scientists.

The deadliest flu strain in history has been resurrected.

Here's a well-reasoned explanation as to why one reasonably smart and well-informed family won't be getting flu shots this year.

Flu shots are recommended for all health care providers, but fewer than half get vaccinated in a typical flu season.

For other people, though, the symptoms are usually no worse than a mild dose of flu.

No one knows if a bird flu pandemic will occur, but the consequences could be enormous.

From avian flu to cholera, infectious diseases may not be able to hide for long.

Just having been alive for a while could protect you from getting the novel swine flu circling the planet.

Differentiating between a cold and flu may be difficult.

Then, it seemed likely that normal rules would apply-that when the rich world sneezes, developing countries get swine flu.

Last summer everyone was in a panic about swine flu.

Thimerosal is still present in some forms of the flu vaccine.

Tamiflu, also known as oseltamivir, is used to shorten the duration of the flu.

Zealand issued a pandemic planning guide for businesses, suggesting how firms should prepare for an outbreak of avian flu.

Public health and pharmaceutical organizations engage in an annual exercise of developing seasonal flu vaccines.

The first doses of vaccine for the swine flu began arriving.

Leading scientists now say a new flu pandemic is not so likely.

Even people who have managed to avoid the flu in recent years may not be so lucky this winter.

But if the flu mutates into a form that can jump from human to human, the outcome would be devastating.

When the next salmonella or avian flu outbreak hits, the internet will have the news first.

If bird flu becomes a pandemic, we're going to need more health-care workers fast.

It's common for it to be suspended during flu season.

Antibodies against the common flu blunt bird flu's effects on mice, but how to enhance the protection in people is unclear.

Instead, it was a drop-off in tourism-partly due to fears about swine flu and escalating drug violence.

One man at the frontline of the bird flu battle disagrees.

Viral diseases such as swine flu have spread quickly around the world by.

See how a flu virus attacks, mutates, and becomes contagious-perhaps resulting in an outbreak or even pandemic.

He heads a scientific team that developed a flu drug.

Bird flu has not disappeared, nor it is any less lethal.

The viruses that cause flu are predictably unpredictable.

The race is on to keep the bird flu from ravaging the world.

Scientists move a step closer to making a seasonal flu preventative that can be produced quickly and does.

Scene by disheartening scene, the spectacle of a severe shortage of flu vaccine is unfolding around the country.

Learn more about influenza, the virus that causes the flu.

Fast treatment manufactured from flu survivors' antibodies could pave the way to more effectively thwarting pandemics.

We don't know them as men and women who have families, catch the flu and play hoops at lunch.

Experts said the situation was unavoidable, given how the global swine flu pandemic raised demand for all flu shots.

Worries about the spread of swine flu are currently doing wonders for the market in pocket-sized antimicrobial handwash.

Snake soup is often eaten as protection against cold and flu.

Researchers warn that banknotes may be reservoirs for the common flu virus.

In short, crime seems to behave much as a flu virus does.

With the world nearly defenseless against a possible bird flu pandemic, a new study evaluates ways of containing.

Researchers judged the effects of regular flu vaccinations for small children by looking at data from emergency room visits.

But that was quickly overcome-good practice if bird flu becomes a pandemic, perhaps-and sales are recovering fast.

He eventually recovered from the nasty woulds and even withstood a couple of bouts of flu to eventually complete his quarantine.

Researchers think similar effects contribute to death from anthrax and pandemic flu.

Parents today are of two minds about the new flu vaccine.

Swine flu has yet to escalate into a global pandemic, but here's what to do if it does.

Authorities are scrambling to contain a swine flu outbreak that has killed as many as.

The swine flu may not be as virulent as thought, but it could return with force.

More flu shot submitters than usual got sick this year.

As companies concentrate on swine flu vaccine, demand for the seasonal vaccine could result in shortages.

Swine flu is sickening so many children, some of them fatally, that officials released the last of a stockpile.

What to call the new strain of flu raising alarms around the world has taken on political, economic and diplomatic overtones.

One shot to protect against all strains of flu won't be here anytime soon, but it is the holy grail for some researchers.

Health experts agree that if the avian flu leads to a human pandemic, the nation's hospitals would not have enough ventilators.

Some pharmacies have run out of the swine flu drug, in part because of precautionary purchases by people who are not sick.

Every year, myths about the flu vaccine spread as widely as the flu itself.

Volunteers for test shots will be recruited at eight sites in a race against a possible resurgence of swine flu in the fall.

Saturday will be the start of the last weekend for free swine flu shots at clinics throughout the city.

Research shows less flu vaccine may be needed to immunize women.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

flu (fluː)

—n
1.	the flu short for influenza
2.	any of various viral infections, esp a respiratory or intestinal infection

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

flu

1839, shortening of influenza.

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

flu (fl&oomacr;)
n.
Influenza.

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

flu (fl