The Collaborative International Dictionary
Rachitic \Ra*chit"ic\ (r[.a]*k[i^]t"[i^]k), a. [Cf. F. rachitique. See Rachitis.] (Med.) Of or pertaining to rachitis; affected by rachitis; rickety.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1797, from rachitis (1727), medical Latin, from Late Greek rhakhitis (nosos) "rachitic disease, inflammation of the spine," from Greek rhakhis "spine, ridge, rib of a leaf" (see rachio-).
Wiktionary
a. 1 (context medicine English) Pertaining to or affected by rickets. (from 18th c.) 2 feeble, in a weak or precarious condition. (from 19th c.)
WordNet
adj. of or relating to or resulting from rickets
Wikipedia
Usage examples of "rachitic".
Braun gives the account of a Porro-Cesarean operation in the case of a rachitic dwarf 3 feet 10 inches tall, in which both the mother and child recovered.
They soon became rachitic from their deprivation of lime-salts and a great number perished, but those who survived were very highly prized by the Roman Emperors for their grotesque appearance.
The rachitic dwarfs of the first class are incapable of perpetuating their species, while those of the second category have proved more than once their virility.
He calls attention to the fact that the scrofulous and rachitic diatheses in childhood are sometimes accompanied by this disorder.
So she went to the arms of that rachitic prince, and she bore him a son - for, as all the world knows, the Duke of Prastana owns Philip for his father.
He was a weedy, unhealthy-looking man, weakly of frame, rachitic, undersized, with spindle-shanks, and a countenance that was almost grotesque, with its protruding jaw, gaping mouth, great, doglike eyes, and yellow tuft of beard.
Hence it became the better part of wisdom to die in the full flower of life, since, for example, a rachitic old man, toothless, short-winded and dyspeptic, could never fully enjoy the banquets, songs and nymphs of paradise.
The granaries were full and the children of the poor grew up rachitic, and the pustules of pellagra swelled on their sides.
I noticed then for the first time that he had short rachitic hands with bowed and thickened phalanges.