tetanus > define

noun

• An acute and serious infection of the central nervous system caused by bacterial infection of open wounds; spasms of the jaw and laryngeal muscles may occur during the late stages.
  • synonyms: lockjaw
• A sustained muscular contraction resulting from a rapid series of nerve impulses. .

• (n.) 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.
• (n.) 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.