strictly signifies such an excess of fear as makes a person tremble. See Fear, Fright, and Terror. In medicine, it denotes a shivering and shaking of the whole body, coming by fits. It is common at the beginning of all fevers, but is particularly remarkable in those of the intermittent kind.

Horror of a Vacuum, was an imaginary principle among the ancient philosophers, to which they ascribed the ascent of water in pumps, and other similar phenomena, which are now known to be occasioned by the weight of the air.