Cal"en*ture (?), n. [F. calenture, fr. Sp. calenture heat, fever, fr. calentar to heat, fr. p. pr. of L. calere to be warm.] (Med.) A name formerly given to various fevers occuring in tropics; esp. to a form of furious delirium accompanied by fever, among sailors, which sometimes led the affected person to imagine the sea to be a green field, and to throw himself into it.

Cal"en*ture, v. i. To see as in the delirium of one affected with calenture. [Poetic]

Hath fed on pageants floating through the air
Or calentures in depths of limpid flood.
Wordsworth.

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• A heat stroke or fever, often suffered in the tropics.
  
• A delerium occurring from such symptoms, in which a striken sailor pictures the sea as grassy greens and wishes to dive overboard into them.