charley horse

See also: charleyhorse

English

Alternative forms

• charlie horse, charley-horse, charleyhorse

Etymology

The term may date back to American slang of the 1880s, and is possibly from the pitcher Charlie "Old Hoss" Radbourn, who is said to have suffered from cramps.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

charley horse (plural charley horses)

1. (idiomatic, US) A muscle cramp, usually in the thigh or leg.
   • 1914, Ralph Henry Barbour, Left End Edwards‎^[1]:

     Of course there had been plenty of bruises—one mild case of charley-horse, several dislocated or sprained fingers, a wrenched ankle or two and any number of cuts and scrapes, […]

2. (informal) A punch in the thigh.
   • 2006, Joe L. Kincheloe, The Praeger Handbook of Urban Education, volume 1, page 324:

     I knew to just keep my mouth shut about it — unless I wanted the word "dummy" to be followed by a charley horse.

Translations

a muscle cramp, usually in the thigh or leg

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 抽筋 (cau¹ gan¹)

  Mandarin: 抽筋 (zh) (chōujīn)

• Esperanto: krurkramfo, gambkramfo
• Finnish: jalkakramppi, suonenveto (fi)
• French: jambe de bois (fr) f, béquille (fr) f
• Icelandic: harðsperrur (is) n pl, þreytukrampi m
• Japanese: こむら返り (komuragaeri)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lårhøne f

• Swedish: lårkaka c

Further reading

• charley horse on Wikipedia.Wikipedia