subs. (old colloquial).—1. A crotchet; and (2) a headache. Fr. une migraine.
d. 1520. DUNBAR, My Heid did Yak, in Poems (Scottish Text Society Edition, 1888–9), p. 254. So sair the MEGRYM dois me menzie.
1609. DEKKER, Ravens Almanacke [GROSART, iv. 185]. But shall be strucke with such MEGRIMS and turnings of the braine, that insteed of going to church, they will (if my Arte faile me not) stumble into a Tauerne.
1639. BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, Wit without Money, i. 1.
| He’d never | |
| Left me the misery of so much Means else, | |
| Which till I sold, was a meer MEAGRIM to me. |
1673. DRYDEN, The Assignation, iii. 3. Now will I have the headache, or the MEGRIM, or some excuse.
1795. R. CUMBERLAND, The Jew, ii. 2. Dorcas. How you ramble, Sirrah! What MEGRIMS you have in your head!
1866. G. ELIOT, Felix Holt, xi. ‘Can’t one work for sober truth as hard as for MEGRIMS?’
