headache
(ˈhɛdeɪk)
Forms: see head n.1 and ache n. Also 5–8 -ake, 7–9 -ach.
1. a. An ache or continuous pain, more or less deep-seated, in the cranial region of the head.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 20 Wiþ heafod ece hundes heafod ᵹebærn to ahsan..leᵹe on. a 1225 Ancr. R. 370 Ase þauh hit were betere to þolien golnesse brune þen heaued eche. 1398 Trevisa Barth De P.R. v. ii. (1495) 104 Also heed ache cometh of grete fastinge and abstynences. 1581 Sidney Apol. Poetrie (Arb.) 44 How many head-aches a passionate life bringeth vs to. 1653 Baxter Chr. Concord 119, I like not him that will cure the Headach by cutting the Throat. 1779 Forrest Voy. N. Guinea 154 Having a severe head-ake. 1779–81 Johnson L.P., Pope Wks. IV. 90 His most frequent assailant was the headach. 1845 Darwin Voy. Nat. vii. (1879) 128, I was confined..to my bed by a headach. a 1861 Mrs. Browning Ld. Walter's Wife vii, Will you vow to be safe from the headache on Tuesday? 1884 Ouida P'cess Napraxine i. (1886) 5 No doubt, it is utterly wrong, and would give [him] a sick headache. |
b. Phr. to be no more use than (or as good as) a (sick) headache: said of something quite useless. colloq.
| 1915 D. O. Barnett Lett. 153 Shrapnel is for defenders, to stop an advance of infantry, but no more use against prepared positions than a sick headache. 1927 D. L. Sayers Unnatural Death i. v. 50 That woman..was no more use than a headache—to use my brother's rather vigorous expression. 1931 W. Holtby Poor Caroline vi. 225 The Tona Perfecta's no more use to any company today than a sick headache. 1963 Guardian 3 Dec. 5/5 The car's contract of sale gives no undertaking or guarantee except the usual one—and that is as good as a sick headache. |
c. A troublesome or annoying problem. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
| 1934 M. Weseen Dict. Amer. Slang 347 Headache, anxiety; worry. 1937 Punch 1 Dec. 610/1 My headache is this—the Big Guy, my boss, won't go to the movies and see for himself what a newspaper girl can do. 1939 G. B. Gilbert Forty Years a Country Preacher 77 The new rectory was both beautiful and expensive, but it proved to be a great headache. 1942 ‘H. Habe’ Thousand shall Fall ix. 181, I asked him how we were expected to transport all these goods. He shrugged his shoulders. ‘That's your headache!’ 1945 Times 11 Jan. 2/4 Commander Bower continued: ‘The biggest headache of all is undoubtedly Poland.’ 1952 N. Streatfeild Aunt Clara 251 They're my headache, not yours. 1968 New Scientist 25 Jan. 205/1 The single-celled organism Euglena is rather a headache for those who would like to divide living things neatly into plants and animals. |
2. A rustic name for the wild poppy (Papaver Rhœas), from the effect of its odour.
| a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Head-ache, the wild field⁓poppy. Any one, by smelling it for a very short time, may convince himself of the propriety of the name. 1827 Clare Sheph. Cal. 47 Corn-poppies..Call'd ‘Head-achs’ from their sickly smell. Mod. (Northampton), The barley field is red with head-aches. |
3. Comb. headache-tree, a verbenaceous shrub, Premna integrifolia, found in the East Indies and Madagascar, the leaves of which are used to cure headache (Treas. Bot. 1866); headache-weed, a shrub, Hedyosmum nutans (N.O. Chloranthaceæ), found in the West Indies (Miller Plant-n., 1884).
So head-aching n., aching of the head, = headache 1; adj., causing headache.
| 1679–80 Marlborough in Wolseley Life (1894) I. 228, I never had so long a fit of headaching. 1824 Lady Granville Lett. (1894) I. 259 She, an excellent, head-aching woman. 1860 Geo. Eliot in Life (1885) II. 155 Written in six weeks, even with headaching interruptions. |