Definition of "bacillus" in Englisch

noun

1. Any of various rod-shaped, spore-forming aerobic bacteria in the genus Bacillus, some of which cause disease.

2. Any bacilliform (rod-shaped) bacterium.

3. (figurative, by extension) Something which spreads like bacterial infection.

   • The “bacillus of boom or depression,” he wrote, travels freely “from country to country.”