palsy

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: pal=sy

CIDE DICTIONARY

palsy, n. [OE. palesie, parlesy, OF. paralesie, F. paralysie, L. paralysis. See Paralysis.].

 Paralysis, complete or partial. See Paralysis.  Mark ii. 3.  [1913 Webster]

Bell's palsy, paralysis of the facial nerve, producing distortion of one side of the face; -- so called from Sir Charles Bell, an English surgeon who described it. -- Scrivener's palsy. See Writer's cramp, under Writer. -- Shaking palsy, (Med.) paralysis agitans, a disease usually occurring in old people, characterized by muscular tremors and a peculiar shaking and tottering gait; now called parkinsonism, or Parkinson's disease.

palsy, v. t. 

 To affect with palsy, or as with palsy; to deprive of action or energy; to paralyze.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

palsy, n. & v.
--n. (pl. -ies)
1 paralysis, esp. with involuntary tremors.
2 a a condition of utter helplessness. b a cause of this.
--v.tr. (-ies, -ied)
1 affect with palsy.
2 render helpless.

Etymology

ME pa(r)lesi f. OF paralisie ult. f. L paralysis: see PARALYSIS

THESAURUS

palsy

MS, ague, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, apoplexy, brain disease, bumpiness, catalepsy, cataplexy, cephalalgia, cerebral palsy, chattering, chorea, cold shivers, diplegia, emotional disorder, epilepsy, falling sickness, fits and starts, glossopharyngeal neuralgia, headache, hemiplegia, herpes zoster, infantile paralysis, ischialgia, jactation, jactitation, jerkiness, joltiness, migraine, multiple sclerosis, nervous disorder, neuralgia, neuritis, neuropathy, organic psychosis, paralysis, paraplegia, paresis, polio, poliomyelitis, polyneuritis, pressure neuropathy, priapism, quaking, quavering, quivering, radiculitis, sciatic neuritis, sciatica, sensory paralysis, shakes, shaking, shaking palsy, shingles, shivering, shivers, shuddering, spasms, spastic paralysis, stroke, succussion, the jerks, tic douloureux, toxic psychosis, trembling, tremulousness, vibration

ROGET THESAURUS

palsy

Disease

N disease, illness, sickness, ailing, all the ills that flesh is heir to, morbidity, morbosity, infirmity, ailment, indisposition, complaint, disorder, malady, distemper, distemperature, visitation, attack, seizure, stroke, fit, delicacy, loss of health, invalidation, cachexy, cachexia, atrophy, marasmus, indigestion, dyspepsia, decay, decline, consumption, palsy, paralysis, prostration, taint, pollution, infection, sepsis, septicity, infestation, epidemic, pandemic, endemic, epizootic, murrain, plague, pestilence, pox, sore, ulcer, abscess, fester, boil, pimple, wen, carbuncle, gathering, imposthume, peccant humor, issue, rot, canker, cold sore, fever sore, cancer, carcinoma, leukemia, neoplastic disease, malignancy, tumor, caries, mortification, corruption, gangrene, sphacelus, sphacelation, leprosy, eruption, rash, breaking out, fever, temperature, calenture, inflammation, ague, angina pectoris, appendicitis, Asiatic cholera, spasmodic cholera, biliary calculus, kidney stone, black death, bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, blennorrhagia, blennorrhoea, blood poisoning, bloodstroke, bloody flux, brash, breakbone fever, dengue fever, malarial fever, Q-fever, heart attack, cardiac arrest, cardiomyopathy, hardening of the arteries, arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis, bronchocele, canker rash, cardialgia, carditis, endocarditis, cholera, asphyxia, chlorosis, chorea, cynanche, dartre, enanthem, enanthema, erysipelas, exanthem, exanthema, gallstone, goiter, gonorrhea, green sickness, grip, grippe, influenza, flu, hay fever, heartburn, heaves, rupture, hernia, hemorrhoids, piles, herpes, itch, king's evil, lockjaw, measles, mumps, polio, necrosis, pertussis, phthisis, pneumonia, psora, pyaemia, pyrosis, quinsy, rachitis, ringworm, rubeola, St. Vitus's dance, scabies, scarlatina, scarlet fever, scrofula, seasickness, struma, syntexis, tetanus, tetter, tonsillitis, tonsilitis, tracheocele, trachoma, trismus, varicella, varicosis, variola, water qualm, whooping cough, yellow fever, yellow jack, fatal disease, dangerous illness, galloping consumption, churchyard cough, general breaking up, break up of the system, idiocy insanity, martyr to disease, cripple, the halt the lame and the blind, valetudinary, valetudinarian, invalid, patient, case, sickroom, sick- chamber, pathology, etiology, nosology, anthrax, bighead, blackleg, blackquarter, cattle plague, glanders, mange, scrapie, milk sickness, heartworm, feline leukemia, roundworms, quarter-evil, quarter-ill, rinderpest, virus, bacterium, bacteria, DNA virus, RNA virus, rhinovirus, rhabdovirus, picornavirus, herpesvirus, cytomegalovirus, CMV, human immunodefficiency virus, HIV, diseased, ailing, ill, ill of, taken ill, seized with, indisposed, unwell, sick, squeamish, poorly, seedy, affected with illness, afflicted with illness, laid up, confined, bedridden, invalided, in hospital, on the sick list, out of health, out of sorts, under the weather, valetudinary, unsound, unhealthy, sickly, morbid, morbose, healthless, infirm, chlorotic, unbraced, drooping, flagging, lame, crippled, halting, morbid, tainted, vitiated, peccant, contaminated, poisoned, tabid, mangy, leprous, cankered, rotten, rotten to the core, rotten at the core, withered, palsied, paralytic, dyspeptic, luetic, pneumonic, pulmonic, phthisic, rachitic, syntectic, syntectical, tabetic, varicose, touched in the wind, broken-winded, spavined, gasping, hors de combat, weakly, weakened, decrepit, decayed, incurable, in declining health, cranky, in a bad way, in danger, prostrate, moribund, morbific epidemic, endemic, zymotic.

Impotence

N impotence, inability, disability, disablement, impuissance, imbecility, incapacity, incapability, inaptitude, ineptitude, incompetence, unproductivity, indocility, invalidity, disqualification, inefficiency, wastefulness, telum imbelle, brutum fulmen, blank, blank cartridge, flash in the pan, vox et proeterea nihil, dead letter, bit of waste paper, dummy, paper tiger, Quaker gun, inefficacy, failure, helplessness, prostration, paralysis, palsy, apoplexy, syncope, sideration, deliquium, collapse, exhaustion, softening of the brain, inanition, emasculation, orchiotomy, orchotomy, cripple, old woman, muff, powder puff, creampuff, pussycat, wimp, mollycoddle, eunuch, powerless, impotent, unable, incapable, incompetent, inefficient, ineffective, inept, unfit, unfitted, unqualified, disqualified, unendowed, inapt, unapt, crippled, disabled, armless, harmless, unarmed, weaponless, defenseless, sine ictu, unfortified, indefensible, vincible, pregnable, untenable, paralytic, paralyzed, palsied, imbecile, nerveless, sinewless, marrowless, pithless, lustless, emasculate, disjointed, out of joint, out of gear, unnerved, unhinged, water-logged, on one's beam ends, rudderless, laid on one's back, done up, dead beat, exhausted, shattered, demoralized, graveled, helpless, unfriended, fatherless, without a leg to stand on, hors de combat, laid on the shelf, null and void, nugatory, inoperative, good for nothing, ineffectual, inadequate, inefficacious, der kranke Mann, desirous still but impotent to rise, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

Insensibility

N insensibility, insensibleness, moral insensibility, inertness, inertia, vis inertiae, impassibility, impassibleness, inappetency, apathy, phlegm, dullness, hebetude, supineness, lukewarmness, cold fit, cold blood, cold heart, coldness, coolness, frigidity, sang froid, stoicism, imperturbation, nonchalance, unconcern, dry eyes, insouciance, recklessness, callousness, heart of stone, stock and stone, marble, deadness, torpor, torpidity, obstupefaction, lethargy, coma, trance, vegetative state, sleep, suspended animation, stupor, stupefaction, paralysis, palsy, numbness, neutrality, quietism, vegetation, insensible, unconscious, impassive, impassible, blind to, deaf to, dead to, unsusceptible, insusceptible, unimpressionable, unimpressible, passionless, spiritless, heartless, soulless, unfeeling, unmoral, apathetic, leuco-, phlegmatic, dull, frigid, cold blooded, cold hearted, cold as charity, flat, maudlin, obtuse, inert, supine, sluggish, torpid, torpedinous, torporific, sleepy, languid, half-hearted, tame, numbed, comatose, anaesthetic, stupefied, chloroformed, drugged, stoned, palsy-stricken, indifferent, lukewarm, careless, mindless, regardless, inattentive, neglectful, disregarding, unconcerned, nonchalant, pococurante, insouciant, sans souci, unambitious, unaffected, unruffled, unimpressed, uninspired, unexcited, unmoved, unstirred, untouched, unshocked, unstruck, unblushing, unanimated, vegetative, callous, thick-skinned, hard-nosed, pachydermatous, impervious, hardened, inured, casehardened, steeled against, proof against, imperturbable, unfelt, insensibly, aequo animo, without being moved, without being touched, without being impressed, in cold blood, with dry eyes, with withers unwrung, never mind, macht nichts, it is of no consequence, it cannot be helped, nothing coming amiss, it is all the same to, it is all one to.

Physical Insensibility

N insensibility, physical insensibility, obtuseness, palsy, paralysis, paraesthesia, anaesthesia, sleep, hemiplegia, motor paralysis, vegetable state, coma, anaesthetic agent, opium, ether, chloroform, chloral, nitrous oxide, laughing gas, exhilarating gas, protoxide of nitrogen, refrigeration, insensible, unfeeling, senseless, impercipient, callous, thick- skinned, pachydermatous, hard, hardened, case hardened, proof, obtuse, dull, anaesthetic, comatose, paralytic, palsied, numb, dead.