Definition

1. Noun:
   • Tuberculosis, especially pulmonary tuberculosis: A serious infectious disease primarily affecting the lungs, characterized by symptoms such as coughing, fever, weight loss, and progressive physical decline. This is the primary and historical meaning.
   • (Archaic/Slang) Addiction to a narcotic drug: A dated or informal term for a severe addiction to drugs, particularly opiates, drawing a metaphorical comparison to the wasting effects of tuberculosis.

Usage Examples

• Noun (Tuberculosis): In the 19th century, the white plague claimed countless lives before the discovery of antibiotics. The symptoms of the white plague include a persistent cough and night sweats.

• Noun (Drug Addiction): (Archaic) He lost everything to the white plague, his body and mind consumed by opium.

Advanced Usage

• The term "white plague" is now considered archaic in medical contexts. The modern term is tuberculosis or TB.
• Its use to describe drug addiction is largely historical or literary, emphasizing the debilitating and consumptive nature of severe addiction.

Variants and Related Words

• Tuberculosis (TB): The modern medical term for the disease.
• Consumption: Another historical synonym for pulmonary tuberculosis.
• Phthisis: An archaic medical term for tuberculosis.

Synonyms

• Tuberculosis (for the disease meaning)
• Consumption (historical synonym)
• Addiction, dependency (for the drug meaning)

Notes on Meaning

• The term's primary definition refers to the disease tuberculosis. The reference to drug addiction is a secondary, metaphorical usage that likens the destructive nature of addiction to that of the historical disease. In contemporary English, "white plague" is rarely used; "tuberculosis" or "TB" is standard for the disease, and terms like "opioid addiction" or "substance use disorder" are used for the condition of addiction.

Noun

1. an addiction to a drug (especially a narcotic drug)
2. involving the lungs with progressive wasting of the body