tsu·tsu·ga·mu·shi disease (tso?o?tso?o-g?-mo?o?sh?)n. See scrub typhus.[Japanese tsutsugamushi, typhus mite : tsutsuga, illness + mushi, tick.]American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.tsutsugamushi disease (?ts?ts????m???) n1. (Pathology) one of the five major groups of acute infectious rickettsial diseases affecting man, common in Asia and including scrub typhus. It is caused by the microorganism Rickettsia tsutsugamushi, transmitted by the bite of mites2. (Pathology) another name for scrub typhus[from Japanese, from tsutsuga disease + mushi insect]Collins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014