dromedary

noun

1. The single-humped camel (Camelus dromedarius).

   “The duke in his schelde and dreches no lengere, / Drawes hym a dromedarie, with dredfulle knyghtez; [...]”

   “The Dromedarie, Camell, Horſe, and Aſſe, / For loade and carriage doth a Sheepe ſurpaſſe: [...]”

   “[T]he Dromedarie [...] who is marvellous ſwift, and will run an hundred miles in a day; but the Germanes call a dull and ſlow man a Dromedary, [...]”

   “I went to see a Dromedarie, a very monstrous beaste, much like the Camel but larger.”

   “Oh, thou Dromedary, thou Founder'd Mule, without a Pack-ſaddle; or what other foul Beaſt ſhall I call thee, for Man thou art not, nor haſt not been to me, Heaven knows the time when? Art not thou aſham'd to ſee me, thou Nincompoop?”

2. Any swift riding camel.

   “[T]hou art like a ſwift dromedarie, that runneth by his wayes.”

3. (attributive, dated)Referring to a biphasic clinical course of poliomyelitis, typically occurring in children, characterized by a minor illness, followed by an asymptomatic period of several days before the onset of a major illness involving the central nervous system.

   “The untreated cases have been arranged in three groups according to the clinical course. The first group, called the dromedary group, shows the curious phenomenon of two different periods of illness with an interval of well-being. […] Because of the two distinct groups or humps of symptoms, the analogy to the arrangement of the dromedary’s back was taken to express the type figuratively.”

name

1. A locality in Brighton council area and the Southern Midlands council area, south eastern Tasmania, Australia.