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Ague-Stricken

Disease
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Afflicted with ague, a recurrent fever often accompanied by chills. It suggests shivering weakness and cyclical suffering.

Detailed Definition
Ague-stricken is an old-fashioned expression that brings historical texture to poems of marshes, voyages, poverty, and rural hardship. Ague once referred broadly to feverish illnesses, especially those marked by alternating cold and heat. A poet may use the term to show a body shaken by climate, exposure, or deprivation. Its archaic sound can also make illness seem part of an older world of superstition, medicine, and elemental danger.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Ague-stricken laborers bent above the winter ditch” gives a historical scene the chill and shaking associated with malaria-like fever; “The ague-stricken moon rattled behind bare branches” applies the term metaphorically to a trembling, pale moon; In a ballad, “ague-stricken, she heard the river call her name” can establish physical weakness and dread; “An ague-stricken dawn shivered over the fen” makes weather echo human illness
Additional Notes
An archaic medical term useful for evoking chills, recurrent suffering, and bodily frailty; often carries historical or Gothic atmosphere.
Also Known As
Fever-Stricken Agueish
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