Cri'sis, n.

n.; pl. cri'sēs. [Lat. crisis, Gr. κρίσις, from κρίνειν, to separate, to determine, to decide; Fr. crise, It. crise, crisi, Sp. crisis.] 1. The point of time when any affair, movement, or course of action, must terminate, or take a new course, or be turned back; the decisive moment; the turning-point. This hour's the very crisis of your fate. Dryden. 2. (Med.) The change of a disease which indicates its result; that change which indicates recovery or death; sometimes, also, a striking change of symptoms attended by an outward manifestation, as by an eruption, or the symptoms accompanying such a change.