[? f. WOOD a. + EVIL sb.] Local name for dysentery or a similar disease in sheep and cattle; also called moor-evil or black-legs.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 50. A sickenes among shepe … called the wode euyll … cometh in the sprynge of the yere,… and maketh them to halt, and to holde theyr necke awry.
1614. Markham, Cheap & Good Husb., III. xix. 75. The wood-euill or Crampe … is a weakenesse or strayning of the sinewes got by colds and surfets.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 295. They have a distemper in Leicestershire frequent amongst the calves, which in that country they call the black-legs; but … in Staffordshire … the wood-evil.
1741. Compl. Fam. Piece, III. 495. The Wood-evil is seldom or never found among Sheep that have their Pasture in low Grounds.
1749. [see moor-evil, MOOR sb.1 6].
1847. W. C. L. Martin, The Ox, 151/2. Wood-evil, moor-ill, or pantas … is brought on in cattle by their devouring the acrid buds of trees, by bad winter provision, by impure water, and similar causes.
