Noun
The pox, or venereal disease; a chronic, specific, infectious disease, usually communicated by sexual intercourse or by hereditary transmission, and occurring in three stages known as primary, secondary, and tertiary syphilis. See under Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary.
Source: Webster's dictionaryIt is unthinkable for a Frenchman to arrive at middle age without having syphilis and the Cross of the Legion of Honor. André Gide
Comforts and syphilis are the greatest enemies of mankind. Alexis Carrel
Heart disease syphilis pregnancy. Kathy Acker
"Virginia?” he said, as if I had asked him if there was anywhere local we could get a dose of syphilis. Bill Bryson
...Daudet differs from the hate-filled Baudelaire and Maupassant in being gentle to fellow-sufferers from the disease of life. Syphilis in him did not engender misanthropy. Anthony Burgess
It's not worse than syphilis. Finnish Proverb