Now rare. [ad. L. tābidus wasting, declining, f. tābēre to waste: see -ID. Perh. through F. tabide (1545 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. Path. Affected with tabes; wasted by disease; consumptive; marcid.
1651. Biggs, New Disp., § 232. Whosoever within fourty daies are not perfectly cured, grow tabid.
1672. Sir T. Browne, Lett. to Friend, § 20. Consumptive and tabid Roots sprout more early.
1713. W. Cheselden, in Phil. Trans., XXVIII. 281. A Man, who died Hydropic and Tabid.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), IV. 88. Sinking … into a premature and tabid old age.
† 2. Corrupted, decomposed. Obs.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., i. (1653), 24. All other Creatures were produced from the tabid Carcasses by the Celestiall influx without seed.
1657. Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 91. These, kept in a moyst place, become tabid.
3. Causing consumption, wasting, or decline.
1671. R. Bohun, Wind, 140. Dry and tabid mists, which corrupt the lungs.
1895. A. T. Quiller-Couch, Wand. Heath, 92. The tabid Curse Brooded over Pelops’ hearse.
4. Of the nature or character of tabes; characterized by wasting away.
1747. trans. Astruc’s Fevers, 136. A simple tabid fever is not so dangerous as a suppurative one.
1765. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, VII. xiv. A gradual and most tabid decline.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), IV. 92. The salacity of age … often wears away the hoary frame to the last stage of a tabid decline.
Hence Tabidly adv., in a tabid manner, consumptively; Tabidness, emaciation, tabes.
1672. Sir T. Browne, Lett. to Friend, § 4. He that is *tabidly inclined were unwise to pass his days in Portugal.
1668. Phil. Trans., III. 699. How it [Sugar] intenerates the flesh, and disposeth to *tabidness.
1700. C. Leigh, Nat. Hist. Lanc., II. ii. § 2. 62. A tabidness of the Flesh, hot and cold fits alternately succeeding.
