megrim

Definitions

  • WordNet 3.6
    • n megrim a severe recurring vascular headache; occurs more frequently in women than men
    • ***
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • Megrim A fancy; a whim; a freak; a humor; esp., in the plural, lowness of spirits. "These are his megrims , firks, and melancholies."
    • Megrim A kind of sick or nervous headache, usually periodical and confined to one side of the head; now more commonly called migraine headache or migraine.
    • Megrim (Far) A sudden vertigo in a horse, succeeded sometimes by unconsciousness, produced by an excess of blood in the brain; a mild form of apoplexy.
    • n Megrim (Zoöl) The British smooth sole, or scaldfish (Psetta arnoglossa).
    • ***
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • n megrim A form of headache usually confined to or beginning or predominating on one side of the head. It may be ushered in by malaise, languor, chilliness, or ocular or other sensory symptoms. The ocular symptoms are such as amblyopia, a glimmering appearance before the eyes, spectra of angular outline (fortification spectra), or hemianopsia. The headache, often becoming overpowering in its character and intensity, lasts from several hours to two or three days. At its height it is attended often with nausea and vomiting. The attacks return with a certain periodicity. Exhausting influences are apt to increase their frequency. The liability to megrim lasts for years, and is apt to disappear in middle life or later. Also called migraine, hemicrania, nervous headache, and sick-headache.
    • n megrim plural Lowness of spirits, as from headache or general physical disturbance; the “blues”; a morbid or whimsical state of feeling.
    • n megrim plural In farriery, a sudden attack of sickness in a horse at work, when he reels, and either stands still for a minute dull and stupid, or falls to the ground insensible. These attacks are often periodical, but are most frequent in warm weather.
    • ***
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • n Megrim mē′grim a pain affecting only one half of the head or face: lowness of spirits: a sudden sickness of a horse at work.
    • ***

Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
OE. migrim, migrene, F. migraine, LL. hemigrania, L. hemicrania, hemicranium, Gr. ; - half + skull. See Hemi- and Cranium, and cf. Hemicrania Migraine
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
Fr. migraine—Gr. hēmicrania—hēmi, half, kranion, skull.

Usage

In literature:

However, I had little enough leisure for personal megrims just then.
"The Lost Continent" by C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne
We've had to wait and endure, and we've been so beaten on the anvil of patience that we've lost all our megrims.
"Mr. Standfast" by John Buchan
Then the Governor's lady had desired him to attend her for the megrims.
"Captain Blood" by Rafael Sabatini
Conciergerie dinner-parties in the Terror always began with a discussion of the latest cure for megrims, or the most fashionable cut of a panier.
"The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne" by William J. Locke
His blood boiled, and the megrims were forgotten.
"The Deaves Affair" by Hulbert Footner
That'll wake you up and drive the megrims out of your mind.
"A Daughter of the Forest" by Evelyn Raymond
Who was safe, if a half-fed scrofulous woman had fancies and the megrims?
"Witch Stories" by E. Lynn (Elizabeth Lynn) Linton
And they told him all that had happened since his megrims had come on.
"The Three Mulla-mulgars" by Walter De La Mare
I'll be all right to-morrow, and I'll enjoy to-morrow all the more for to-day's megrim.
"The Inventions of the Idiot" by John Kendrick Bangs
What megrim have you had?
"Porzia" by Cale Young Rice
***

In poetry:

Bob's livin' lonely, same as me;
But he don't take to frettin' so
An' gettin' megrims after tea.
He reads a lot at night, I know;
His hut has books half up the wall
That I don't tumble to at all.
"Old Bob Blair" by C J Dennis
— "You used to call home-life a hag-ridden dream,
And you'd sigh, and you'd sock; but at present you seem
To know not of megrims or melancho-ly!" —
"True. One's pretty lively when ruined," said she.
"The Ruined Maid" by Thomas Hardy

In news:

Cathy's friends tried to convince her that a night on the town would help to alleviate her megrim , but she wasn't buying it.
wkqsfm.com
There screen'd in shades from day's detested glare, Spleen sighs for ever on her pensive bed, Pain at her side, and megrim at her head.
nybooks.com
***

Related words