<p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>A group of diseases, usually intermittent or remittent, characterized by attacks of chills, fever, and sweating; formerly supposed to be due to swamp exhalations but now known to be caused by a parasitic protozoan, which is transferred to the human bloodstream by a mosquito of the genus Anopheles and which occupies and destroys red blood cells.</li><li>Unwholesome or poisonous air (archaic).</li></ul>