tetanus Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an acute and serious infection of the central nervous system caused by bacterial infection of open wounds; spasms of the jaw and laryngeal muscles may occur during the late stages
    lockjaw.
  2. noun a sustained muscular contraction resulting from a rapid series of nerve impulses

WordNet

Tet"a*nus noun
Etymology
L., fr. Gr. , fr. stretched, to stretch.
Definitions
  1. (Med.) A painful and usually fatal disease, resulting generally from a wound, and having as its principal symptom persistent spasm of the voluntary muscles. When the muscles of the lower jaw are affected, it is called locked-jaw, or lickjaw, and it takes various names from the various incurvations of the body resulting from the spasm. caused by the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium tetani.
  2. (Physiol.) That condition of a muscle in which it is in a state of continued vibratory contraction, as when stimulated by a series of induction shocks.

Webster 1913