[f. VARICOSE a. + -ITY.]
1. A varicose swelling or distension.
c. 1842. Todd’s Cycl. Anat., III. 233. Irregular dilatations or varicosities of the absorbent vessels.
1877. Huxley, Anat. Inv. Anim., i. 64. These fibrils present numerous minute varicosities, and, at intervals, larger swellings.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 1078. On pricking one of these varicosities a larger or smaller quantity of fluid escapes.
2. The state or condition of being varicose or abnormally swollen; an instance or case of this.
1876. Gross, Dis. Bladder, etc., 157. The disease here consists either in a simple varicosity or in the development of vascular growths.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 380. Varicosity of the veins at the lower end of the œsophagus.
1898. P. Manson, Trop. Diseases, xxxi. 462. One [type of disease] characterised by varicosity of lymphatics.
transf. 1891. Rayleigh, in Proc. Roy. Inst. (1893), XIII. 264. The cylindrical [liquid] jet may be said to become varicose, and the varicosity goes on increasing with time.
3. The state of having varicose veins.
1879. H. P. Dunn, in Barthol. Hosp. Rep., XV. 251. Varicosity of the lower limbs is met with in seamen.
