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scarlet fevers

scarlet fevers is the plural of scarlet fever.

Meaning of scarlet fever

Noun

scarlet fever (countable and uncountable, plural scarlet fevers)

  1. A streptococcal infection, mainly occurring among children, and characterized by a red skin rash, sore throat and fever.
    • "I am sure," replied Mrs. Palmer, "if it were not wicked, I should be glad that you had the scarlet fever; I am so much happier since I knew you...1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter V, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 54
    Synonyms:
    scarlatina
  2. (UK, obsolete, slang, uncountable) Romantic attraction to soldiers in preference to other people.
    • Soldiers are notorious for hunting up these women, especially nurse-maids and those that in the execution of their duty walk in the Parks, when they may easily be accosted. Nurse-maids feel flattered by the attention that is lavished upon them, and are always ready to succumb to the “scarlet...1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861

Questions about scarlet fevers

What is scarlet fevers the plural of?
Scarlet fevers is the plural of scarlet fever.

Words near scarlet fevers in the dictionary

  1. Scarlet Day
  2. Scarlet Days
  3. scarlet eggplant
  4. scarlet eggplants
  5. scarlet fever
  6. scarlet fevers
  7. scarlet geranium
  8. scarlet geraniums
  9. scarlet honeycreeper
  10. scarlet honeycreepers
  11. scarlet honeysuckle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scarlet fevers (page history and authors); scarlet fever (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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