murian

Noun

murrain (countable and uncountable, plural murrains)

1. (archaic, uncountable) Infectious disease; pestilence, plague; (countable) sometimes used in curses such as a murrain on someone: an outbreak of such a disease; a plague.
   • How a murryen came this chaunce, (ſay Tib) vnto our dame?c. 1553 (date written), “S.” [pseudonym; attributed to William Stevenson], […] Gammer Gurtons Nedle: […], London: […] Thomas Colwell, published 1575, →OCLC, Act I, scene iii, signature A.iii., verso
2. (archaic, countable, figuratively) A widespread affliction, calamity, or destructive influx, especially when seen as divine retribution; a plague.
   • Usura [a personification of usury] is a murrain, usura / blunteth the needle in the maid’s hand / and stoppeth the spinner’s cunning.1937, Ezra Pound, “Canto XLV”, in The Fifth Decad of Cantos, London: Faber and Faber, →OCLC; republished in A Selection of Poems, London: Faber and Faber […], November 1940, →OCLC, page 80
3. (countable, historical) Any of several highly infectious diseases of cattle or other livestock, such as anthrax, babesiosis, or rinderpest; or a particular epizootic thereof; also, an infectious disease affecting other animals, such as poultry.
   • water murrain
4. (broadly, countable) An infectious disease affecting plants.
   • potato murrain
5. (countable, obsolete) A poor-quality green-salted animal hide.
   • Green salted are those that have been salted and are thoroughly cured. […] In green-salted hides and skins, those weighing […] 14 to 25 pounds, if plump, kip, but if thin and poor are called runners or murrains, and are sold at two thirds the price of good kip; […][1877, Edward H[enry] Knight, “Leath′er”, in Knight’s American Mechanical Dictionary. […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: Hurd and Houghton […], →OCLC, page 1275, column 1
6. (obsolete, uncountable) Death, especially from an infectious disease.
   • Moreyn dethe mortalité […] mourine […]1530 July 28 (Gregorian calendar), Iohan Palsgraue [i.e., John Palsgrave], “The Table of Substantyues”, in Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse⸝ […], [London]: […] [Richard Pynson] fynnysshed by...

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