sorehead

English

Etymology

From sore +‎ head, perhaps specifically from the simile like (or mad as) a bear with a sore head.

Noun

sorehead (countable and uncountable, plural soreheads)

1. A person who has a tendency to be angry or to feel offended.

   Don't be a sorehead! Forgive, forget and get on with your life.

   • 1998, Phil Craft, Stan Friedland, An Orphan Has Many Parents, page 41:

     Of course, my competitive nature occasionally crossed the line into being a sorehead and poor loser.

   • 2000, Nancy Capace, McGill, Ralph Emerson, entry in Encyclopedia of Tennessee, page 63,

     He^[McGill] antagonized them by printing that they were a bunch of "failures . . . chronic soreheads . . . hoodlums, and toughs who have no faith in themselves."

   • 2005, Ralph J. Sabock, Michael D. Sabock, Coaching: A Realistic Perspective, page 67:

     No matter what the size or type of community, you'll have critics, and they are not always just soreheads who are unhappy when a team loses.

2. (derogatory, US, political slang) A politician who is dissatisfied through failure, lack of recognition, etc. [from 19th c]
   • 1989, Richard M. Valelly, Radicalism in the States: The Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party and the American Political Economy, page 41:

     In most of these areas there was improvement between 1920, the year of the second Farmer-Labor ballot and the last election in which the coalition was able to use sorehead tactics, and the special senatorial election of 1923.

   • 2002, Louise Carroll Wade, Chicago's Pride, page 331:

     Officials walked a tightrope because disappointed voters could join or, if need he, form an opposing coalition, and they could cozy up to "soreheads" who were encouraging merger with Chicago.

   • 2007, Bessie Louise Pierce, A History of Chicago, Volume III: The Rise of a Modern City, 1871-1893, page 341,

     Despite the opposition of professional politicians of unsavory reputation and men the Tribune described as “irresponsible soreheads,” the Medill ticket swept into office with a flatteringly large vote.

3. (uncountable) Infection in sheep by the nematode Elaeophora schneideri; elaeophorosis.
   • 1998, David Petersen, Elkheart: A Personal Tribute to Wapiti and Their World, page 107:

     And sometimes, the bugs themselves are the predators, the killers and consumers of elk.
     I think of the green-headed horsefly and its bloody conspirator, the sorehead roundworm—Elaeophora schneideri.

   • 2012, D. G. Pugh, N. (Nickie) Baird, Sheep and Goat Medicine, unnumbered page,

     Elaeophora schneideri is a filarial nematode that has been reported primarily in wildlife species in the western United States, including mule deer and bighorn sheep.^36,37 Elaeophorosis (sorehead) is uncommon in sheep and goats.

4. (uncountable) Fowlpox.
   • 1905, F. L. Hoogs, Paradise of the Pacific, volumes 18-19, page 45:

     Sorehead is a prevailing trouble in Hawaii, but I am convinced that much sorehead, if not all of it, can be averted if we keep our chicks off the ground until they are at least three months old.

   • 1922, University of Hawaii (Honolulu), Agricultural Dept, Annual Report of the Agricultural Department, Volume 4, page 103,

     The two principal causes of death among chicks has^[sic] been sorehead and coccidiosis.

   • 1977, Kathryn Tucker Windham, Southern Cooking to Remember, page 106:

     Such ailments as sorehead and pip also took their toll. Children learned early not to throw watermelon rinds where the chickens could peck them: pecking watermelon rinds gave chickens sorehead.

Synonyms

• (Elaeophora schneideri infection in sheep): elaeophorosis, filarial dermatitis

Related terms

• dickhead
• blockhead

Translations

offended person

• German: beleidigte Leberwurst (de)

Anagrams

• rosehead