D defs.my
Entry 2 senses Webster, 1913

Tetanus

/tĕt'-ən-əs/ · Tet·a·nus · IPA /ˈtɛt.ən.əs/
01 n. A painful and usually fatal disease, resulting generally from a wound, and having as its principal symptom persistent spasm of the voluntar…
  1. 1.
    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.(Med.) Also: locked-jaw, lickjaw
  2. 2.
    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.(Physiol.)