headache
Pluralheadaches
- 1A pain or ache located in the head, ranging from a mild throb to a sharp, persistent discomfort.
A pounding headache kept him awake for most of the night.
Bright lights and loud noise can bring on a severe headache in some people.
Note
The word is an old compound: Old English hēafodeċe, simply head plus ache. Clinicians sort the pain in two: primary when the headache is the disorder itself, as with tension-type pain or migraine, and secondary when it signals another condition. Everyday speech grades it by force instead, with splitting as the stock intensifier. Remedies are "good for" headaches, an idiom George Carlin mocked in Brain Droppings (1997).
- 2An annoying problem or persistent source of trouble and frustration.
Organizing the conference turned into a logistical headache for the planning team.
Tax season is a recurring headache for small business owners.
Similarnuisance, hassle, problem, nightmare, bother
Note
Here the pain has moved from the skull to the situation, a figurative stretch of the physical ache. It takes size words rather than pain words: a huge headache, many a headache. People suffer it the way they suffer the literal kind, as when Walter McGrath pictured railway engineers in the Railway Magazine of 1957 seeking firm footing on bogland.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of headache apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
From Middle English hevedeche, from Old English hēafodeċe, formed from head + ache.