Pox \Pox\, n. [For pocks, OE. pokkes. See Pock. It is plural
in form but is used as a singular.]
(Med.)
Strictly, a disease by pustules or eruptions of any kind, but
chiefly or wholly restricted to three or four diseases, --
the smallpox, the chicken pox, and the vaccine and the
venereal diseases.
Note: Pox, when used without an epithet, as in imprecations,
formerly signified smallpox; but it now signifies
syphilis.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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