Definition of falling sickness in US English:

noun

• archaic term for epilepsy

  Example sentences

  • ‘Because of this health department notice, TV stations will have to suspend medical treatment adverts for certain illnesses such as venereal diseases, psoriasis, HIV / AIDS, cancer, falling sickness and vertigo.’
  • ‘A Sumerian term referring to descriptions of seizures has been translated as ‘The Falling Sickness’.’
  • ‘The Chinese translation of epilepsy is Dian, meaning falling sickness, and epileptic attack is Xian, meaning convulsion.’
  • ‘The powerful shall rise and the cowards would shrivel at the falling sickness.’
  • ‘Epilepsy, ‘the falling sickness,’ was one of the most feared and least well understood problems in early New England, as it was throughout the world.’