† head-wark, -werk Now dial.
Also 6 rarely -work.
[OE. héafodwærc masc., ON. hǫfuðverkr headache, f. hǫfuð head + verk work; cf. verkja to ache, pain, ‘virkir mik i hǫfuðit’, it aches me in the head. OE. weorc neut., besides ‘work’, had the senses ‘hardship, pain, grief’.]
1. Pain in the head, headache. Cf. dial. belly-wark.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 18 Wið heafod wærce ᵹenim rudan. c 1350 in Archæol. XXX 350 All hys hedwerk awey xal synke. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 2580 Alle hir hedewerk went away. 1483 Cath. Angl. 180/1 Þe Hedewarke. a 1510 Douglas King Hart ii. lvii, Heid⁓werk, Hoist, and Parlasy. 1549 Compl. Scot. vi. 37 Caterris, hede verkis, ande indegestione. 1629 Z. Boyd Balm Gilead 59 (Jam.) A toothache, or an head-worke, as we say. |
| attrib. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 232/2 Heedwarke sufferere. |
2. The Common Corn Poppy;
= headache 2.
| 1863 Prior Plant-n., Headache, or Head-warke, from the effect of its odour, the red field-poppy, Papaver Rhœas. |