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stomach flu

stomach flu

9 2.5
An illness that makes your stomach and intestines sore and swollen, causing vomiting and diarrhea
  • noun
  • /ˈstʌmək flu/
  • Informal
translation icon : gastroenteritis
  • My kids caught the stomach flu from their friends at school, and now they feel awful.
  • a bout of stomach flu
  • get the stomach flu
  • bad stomach flu

And then we climbed Kilimanjaro and I came down with a stomach flu on on day three.

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Examples

  • I have that stomach flu that's going around.

  • The very first thing I do when I feel I'm coming down with the stomach flu is clean the bathroom toilet and try to wipe up the bathroom floor.

    Blog text (27)
  • We have had stomach flu going around at our house for about the past week, a little more than a week.

  • So the doctor says it's a stomach flu.

  • Nobody has the stomach flu.

  • I've got a touch of the stomach flu.

  • Albert's got the stomach flu.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • Both Clovis and Levi had the stomach flu through the evening and into the night.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • What was once called "stomach flu" is now well-known to frequently be caused by food contamination, and so now we know better how to reduce its incidence.

    Blog text (14)
  • The doctor diagnosed me with stomach flu after I experienced severe vomiting and diarrhea.

Synonyms

food poisoning
vsstomach flu
43 2.7

An illness from eating food with harmful germs

is broader, naming the inflammation regardless of how it started
gastroenteritis
vsstomach flu
  • Specialized
5 5.8

An illness that makes the stomach and intestines sore and causes vomiting and diarrhea

is the informal everyday name for the same inflammation
gastrointestinal disorder
vsstomach flu
  • Specialized
1 3.7

An illness that affects the stomach and intestines, often from bad food or water

is narrower, focusing on infectious inflammation with vomiting and diarrhea
intestinal flu
vsstomach flu
3.1

An infection of the stomach and intestines that causes vomiting and diarrhea

refers more generally to the inflammation without naming the cause

Antonyms

1.0

The condition of a person's body and mind, especially being free from illness or injury

52 3.2

Good physical and mental health that people try to keep

How Severe

stomach flu
  • Informal
9 2.5
stomach ache
11 1.0

Surface Forms

stomach flu singular
stomach flus plural

Morphology

stomach + flu

The phrase simply combines 'stomach' (the organ) with 'flu' (an illness), so the meaning 'an illness affecting the stomach/intestines' is directly inferable from the constituents. This compositional pattern is common cross-linguistically and a B1 learner who knows both words will generally understand the intended gastroenteritis sense.

Etymology

Stomach flu: The name stomach flu comes from a simple image: the stomach is sick and people called it a kind of flu because that word was used for many quick illnesses. So stomach flu now means 'a stomach illness that causes vomiting and diarrhea'.