The Collaborative International Dictionary
lickjaw
Tetanus \Tet"a*nus\, n. [L., fr. Gr. ?, fr. ? stretched, ? to stretch.]
(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.
(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.