boneache
English
Alternative forms
- bone-ache
Etymology
bone + ache
Noun
boneache (countable and uncountable, plural boneaches)
- Pain in the bones, or seemingly in the bones.
- c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene ii]:
- After this, the vengeance on the whole camp! or rather, the bone-ache! for that, methinks, is the curse dependent on those that war for a placket.
- 1912, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “Old Lady Lloyd” in Chronicles of Avonlea, Boston: L.C. Page, p. 43,
- The blueberries grew far away and the Old Lady had many a tramp after them. Sometimes her bones ached at night because of it; but what cared the Old Lady for that? Bone ache is easier to endure than soul ache; and the Old Lady’s soul had stopped aching for the first time in many a year.
- 1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 7:
- "Well, sorcerer?" growled the Norman. "Nay, not well," replied Catweazle shivering miserably, "I have the bone-ache."
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Synonyms
- osteocope (medicine)
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for boneache in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)