noun

• (medicine) An infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, gradually producing nerve damage and patches of skin necrosis and historically handled by permanently quarantining its sufferers.
• (medicine, now usually proscribed) Similar contagious skin diseases causing light patches of scaly skin, particularly psoriasis, syphilis, vitiligo, scabies, and (biblical) the various diseases considered "tzaraath" in the Old Testament.
• (figurative) Anything considered similarly permanent, harmful, and communicable, particularly when such a thing should be handled by avoidance or isolation of its victims.
• (obsolete) Synonym of mange and glanders in horses.
• (obsolete, rare) Synonym of leprosarium: a place for the housing of lepers in isolation from the rest of society.
• (veterenary medicine) A contagious disease causing similar effects in animals, particularly
• Ellipsis of murine leprosy. and feline leprosy, diseases caused in rodents and cats by Mycobacterium lepraemurium.