Definition of "measles"

Maybe it's the 'measles. They say they're going around the neighborhood.

1970, Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, page 78

In the camps a case of measles is defined as a generalized rash of three or more days duration, with a fever of at least 38.8°C.., and any one of the following: cough, coryza or conjunctivitis.

1990, International Journal of Epidemiology, volume 19, page 1073

Why the meazills, should you stand heere, with your traine...

1614 November 10 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Beniamin Iohnson [i.e., Ben Jonson], Bartholmew Fayre: A Comedie, […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Robert Allot, […], published 1631, (please specify the page)

The Swyne dyed of the Measils.

1641, Ben Jonson, Timber

Porcine measles, thought by classical writers to be leprosy, is actually the result of tapeworm cysts which cause ulcerations of the pig's tongue.

1992, Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, translated by Anthea Bell, The History of Food, page 416

Their fruit-trees are subject to two diseases, the Meazels... and lowsiness.

1674, John Josselyn, An Account of Two Voyages to New-England, page 190

Others take a fether, and dippe it in the saide water, and therwith they annoynte all the Measells of the Face when they are come forth.

1599, "A.M." translating Osswald Gäbelkhover as The Boock of Physicke, p. 277

Measles. When prints are imperfectly fixed, the appearance presented is very similar to that of the same disease in the human subject. Hence the name.

1867, Thomas Sutton et al., Dictionary of Photography, page 217

The stars, like measles, fade at last.

1929, Samuel Hoffenstein, “Mr Walter de la Mare”, in Poems in Praise of Practically Nothing, page 147

The Lady Tofaa also had a red measle of paint on her forehead between her eyes.

1984, Gary Jennings, The Journeyer, page 671

How do I get the measles out of an Indian paper print, Lovejoy?... Measles is trade nickname for foxing, those brown spots... that trouble books, prints, and watercolors.

1990, John Grant, The Very Last Gambado, page 125

[…] they would prefer having him "die of the measles," as wags at the CIA put it, than be punished by legal means. If there is no convenient way of administering the "measles," they may even favor simply letting him go.

1975, Miles Copeland, Beyond Cloak and Dagger: Inside the CIA, page 204

Such final solutions, sometimes referred to as termination with extreme prejudice, are known in the CIA as dying of the measles — that is, the death appears to be of natural causes.

1977, Raymond Edward Palmer, The Making of a Spy, page 99