n. 1. A visible lesion or group of lesions on the skin, caused by any of numerous factors including infectious agents, drugs, and allergies. 2. An outbreak of many instances within a brief period: a rash of burglaries. [Possibly from obsolete French rache, a sore, from Old French rasche, scurf, from raschier, to scrape, scratch, from Vulgar Latin *rāsicāre, from Latin rāsus, past participle of rādere; see rēd- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] |
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