megrims

English

megrims pl (plural only)

Chiefly preceded by the: depression, low spirits, unhappiness. [from 16th c.]
- 1766, George Colman, David Garrick, The Clandestine Marriage, a Comedy. […], London: […] T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, […]; R[oberts] Baldwin, […]; R. Davis, […]; and T[homas] Davies, […], →OCLC, Act IV, scene ii, page 58:
  Thou art properly my cephalick ſnuff, and art no bad medicine againſt megrims, vertigoes, and profound thinking—ha, ha, ha.
- 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
  I'm not myself, of course, an idealistic girl in love with a member of the staff of the Thursday Review and never have been, but if I were I know I'd get the megrims somewhat severely if I caught [my fiancé] in a clinch with anyone as personable as this stepdaughter of Aubrey Upjohn, for though shaky on the IQ, physically she was a pipterino of the first water.
(veterinary medicine) Any of various diseases of animals, especially horses, marked by a disturbance of equilibrium and abnormal gait and behaviour such as staggers or a sudden vertigo, sometimes followed by unconsciousness; the staggers. [from 17th c.]

megrims