ague

Etymology

From Middle English agu, ague, borrowed from Middle French (fievre) aguë, “acute (fever)” (Modern French fièvre aiguë), from Late Latin (febris) acuta (“acute fever”), from Latin acūtus (“sharp, acute”) + febris (“fever”). Doublet of acute.

noun

1. (obsolete) An acute fever.
2. (pathology) An intermittent fever, attended by alternate cold and hot fits.
   'Ague and lake fever had attacked our new settlement. The men in the shanty were all down with it, and my husband was confined to his bed on each alternate day, unable to raise hand or foot, and raving in the delirium of the fever.' 1852, Susanna Moodie, Roughing it in the Bush: or, Forest Life in Canada
   'Twere hard to say who fared the best: Sad mortals! thus the Gods still plague you! He lost his labour, I my jest: For he was drowned, and I've the ague 1810, Lord Byron, Written after Swimming from Sestos to Abydos
3. The cold fit or rigor of the intermittent fever
   fever and ague
4. A chill, or state of shaking, as with cold.
   November 23, 1698, John Dryden, letter to Mrs Stewart I 'scap'd with one cold fit of an ague
5. (obsolete) Malaria.
   Where I'm from, people have learned that mosquitoes carry ague. 1979, Octavia Butler, Kindred

verb

1. (transitive) To strike with an ague, or with a cold fit.