Cri"sis (kr?"s?s), n.; pl. Crises (-sz). [L. crisis, Gr. , fr. to separate. See Certain.]
1.
The point of time when it is to be decided whether any affair or course of action must go on, or be modified or terminate; the decisive moment; the turning point.
This hour's the very crisis of your fate.
Dryden.
The very times of crisis for the fate of the country.
Brougham.
2. Med.
That change in a disease which indicates whether the result is to be recovery or death; sometimes, also, a striking change of symptoms attended by an outward manifestation, as by an eruption or sweat.
Till some safe crisis authorize their skill.
Dryden.
© Webster 1913.