palsy

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Complete or partial muscle paralysis of a body part, often accompanied by a loss of feeling and uncontrolled body movements such as shaking.

   “The palsie plagues my pulses when I prigg yoͬ: piggs or pullen your culuers take, or matchles make your Chanticleare or sullen”

   “"Young lady, there is no hope; one side of the Duchesse is struck with palsy; she retains her senses, and will, most probably, to the last; but she cannot live through the night."”

   “"Ah! now we come to business! Barber, who's dead?" "Alderman Croten, sir." "Tut-tut. Croten gone?" "Yes, sir; palsy took him at a ripe age. And Abel's gone, the Town Crier;"”

   “Again we were stricken of our palsy, slowed down, re-accelerated, and there, at last, were the few huts of a hamlet, with the lorry, lying at an angle in the road's camber, outside a tea-shop.”

2. (slang)Mate, chum.

   “Listen, palsy, you're not the boss.”

verb

1. To paralyse, either completely or partially.

   “1831, William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator, To The Public http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2928t.html In the month of August, I issued proposals for publishing "THE LIBERATOR" in Washington city; but the enterprise, though hailed in different sections of the country, was palsied by public indifference.”

   “Its streets were blocked up with snow - the few passengers seemed palsied with snow, and frozen by the ungenial visitation of winter.”

adj

1. (colloquial)Chummy, friendly.