chronic

Pluralchronics (some meanings)

1. 1
   adjective

   Of a problem: continuing or persisting over an extended period of time.

   The region suffers from chronic water shortages every summer.

   Chronic underfunding has left the library unable to replace its damaged books.

   Similarpersistent, perennial, ongoing, constant, recurrent

   Oppositetemporary, occasional

   Note

   Time is built into the word. It comes through Latin chronicus from Greek khronikós, "of time", from khrónos. A chronic problem is measured by how long it lasts, not how bad it is: chronic poverty, chronic unemployment, chronic mismanagement. It pairs most naturally with nouns for conditions and states. The idea of severity enters only with the informal "extremely serious" sense.

2. 2
   adjective

   Of an illness or medical condition: prolonged or slow to heal.

   Chronic inflammation can quietly damage tissue over many years.

   The clinic specializes in managing chronic conditions like diabetes and asthma.

   Similarlong-term, persistent

   Oppositeacute

   Note

   In medicine the word is a clock, not a thermometer. A chronic cough, headache or illness is one that lingers, whatever its intensity. Its working partner is acute, the sudden and short-running kind, and much clinical language sorts conditions into those two bins. Chronic pain is a field of its own: the CDC set prescribing guidelines for it in 2016.

3. 3
   adjective

   Living with an illness or other affliction that lasts a long time or takes a long time to heal.

   Chronic patients often build close relationships with their care teams.

   By forty he was chronic, living around the limits his illness set.

   Similarlong-term

   Oppositeacute

   Note

   Here the adjective moves from the illness to the person who has it. It works before a noun, as in chronic patients, and after a verb, as in he was chronic. That shift is what makes the noun for a long-term case possible. Drop the word patients and you are left with chronics.

4. 4
   adjective

   Inveterate or habitual; given to a behavior so persistently that it has become ingrained.

   He was a chronic gambler who would bet on anything with odds.

   Chronic procrastinators often underestimate how long a task will take.

   Similarhabitual, inveterate, compulsive, incorrigible, hardened

   Oppositeoccasional

   Note

   The habit sense attaches to words for people defined by what they keep doing: chronic smoker, chronic complainer, chronic workaholic. The time idea survives, but the persistence now lies in behavior rather than in a condition. The adjective almost always comes before the noun. Saying a smoker is chronic sounds clinical, while a chronic smoker sounds natural.

5. 5
   nounslanguncountable

   Marijuana, typically of high quality.

   They paid extra for chronic instead of the usual mid-grade stuff.

   He swore the chronic from up the coast hit harder than anything grown locally.

   Similarweed, cannabis, pot, dope, grass

   Note

   Street slang for potent marijuana. It works mostly as a mass noun (some chronic, the chronic), though it can also be counted. It belongs to the vocabulary of urban fiction such as Noire's Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale (2006). Unlike the slang adjectives, it praises the thing itself rather than passing a verdict on an experience.

6. 6
   adjectivecolloquial

   Extremely serious.

   By midnight the flooding had turned chronic, and they evacuated the lower floors.

   The referee warned that any more chronic fouls would mean a straight red card.

   Similarserious, severe, critical, grave

   Oppositeminor, trivial

   Note

   An informal intensifier that can collide with the medical meaning. "They left him in a chronic condition" means he was left in a very bad way, not that he had a long-term illness. When the phrase chronic condition appears outside clinical talk, the context has to show whether duration or seriousness is meant.

7. 7
   adjectiveslang

   Very bad; awful.

   The hotel looked lovely online, but the rooms turned out to be chronic.

   His first attempt at karaoke was absolutely chronic.

   Similarawful, terrible, dreadful, atrocious, abysmal

   Oppositeexcellent, great, superb

   Note

   Slang disapproval, used mostly after a verb to pass verdict on an experience, as in that concert was chronic. Be careful with it, because the same slang can run the opposite way and mean "great". Nothing in the word itself tells the two apart, so tone and setting decide. In writing, or with listeners outside the slang, a plainer word avoids the ambiguity.

8. 8
   adjectiveslang

   Good or great; excellent.

   The DJ's set last night was chronic from start to finish.

   Those custom sneakers are chronic. Where did you get them?

   Similarawesome, great, excellent, amazing, brilliant

   Oppositeawful, terrible, lame

   Note

   Slang approval, and its nearest equivalent is wicked, another word that crossed from bad to good. It can sit at the top of a scale of praise, as in cool, chronic in fact. Because the slang "awful" sense uses the same word, it belongs among speakers who share the code.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   A person marked by a long-lasting condition or persistent behavior pattern, such as a repeat criminal offender or a patient with a long-term disease.

   Probation officers spend most of their hours on chronics.

   The shelter director called one resident a chronic, in and out for fifteen years.

   Similarrecidivist

   Note

   A case-file word, usually met in the plural. The Report of the Committee on Lunacy (1895) counts "able-bodied chronics". Criminology and pastoral writing still use it for repeat offenders and perennial complainers. Because it labels a person by their condition, it can read as cold. Outside institutional talk, "a person with a chronic illness" is the safer phrasing.

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