Definition of "leprosy" in English

noun

1. (pathology, medicine) An infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, gradually producing nerve damage and patches of skin necrosis and historically handled by permanently quarantining its sufferers.

   • Then is it surely a leprosy
   • Leprosy seems to have spread from India to the Middle East by early antiquity and from there to Europe during the time of the Roman Empire.

2. (medicine, now usually proscribed) Similar contagious skin diseases causing light patches of scaly skin, particularly psoriasis, syphilis, vitiligo, scabies, and (biblical) the various diseases considered "tzaraath" in the Old Testament.

3. (figurative) Anything considered similarly permanent, harmful, and communicable, particularly when such a thing should be handled by avoidance or isolation of its victims.

   • Sin is a spiritual leprosy.

4. (veterenary medicine) A contagious disease causing similar effects in animals, particularly

5. (obsolete, rare) Synonym of leprosarium: a place for the housing of lepers in isolation from the rest of society.