Word of the Day Archive
Monday July 14, 2003
febrile \FEB-ruhl; FEE-bruhl; -bryl\ , adjective:
Of or pertaining to fever; indicating fever or derived from it; feverish.
Instead of being weakened by the consumption she contracts in a dank Yankee prison, Adair seems fired from within; she glows -- flushed, febrile and passionate.
-- Ann Prichard, "Enemy Women' joins ranks of Civil War epics", USA Today, February 28, 2002
Whether his refusal to quit stemmed from righteous stoicism or mulishness, the Governor-General became trapped in a vortex of lurid claims, political opportunism, public hysteria and febrile op-ed commentary that was sucking the life out of his tenure.
-- Tom Dusevic, "Queen's Man In Limbo", Time Pacific, May 19, 2003
Typically, febrile seizures do not cause brain injury or raise the risk of epilepsy; they are simply the brain's response to a sudden rise in temperature.
-- Judy Foreman, "On Fever: Sweat It Out Or Treat It", Boston Globe, February 29, 2000
Febrile comes from Late Latin febrilis, from Latin febris, "fever."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for febrile
