\Re*laps"ing\, a.
Marked by a relapse; falling back; tending to return to a
former worse state.
{Relapsing fever} (Med.), an acute, epidemic, contagious
   fever, which prevails also endemically in Ireland, Russia,
   and some other regions. It is marked by one or two
   remissions of the fever, by articular and muscular pains,
   and by the presence, during the paroxism of spiral
   bacterium ({Spiroch[ae]te}) in the blood. It is not
   usually fatal. Called also {famine fever}, and {recurring
   fever}.