n.
An acute, highly contagious degenerative viral disease of cattle and other cloven-hoofed animals, characterized by fever and the eruption of vesicles around the mouth and hooves. It is usually not fatal. Also called hoof-and-mouth disease.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.