rheumatickyadj.n.
/ruːˈmatᵻki/, U.S. /ruˈmædəki/, /rəˈmædəki/ colloquial.
A. adj.
1. Of weather, or a place or its climate: tending to induce or exacerbate rheumatism.
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1846 Allen's Indian Mail 4 Dec. 760/1 Letters from Mahableshwur..describe the weather as..‘muggy, thundery, rheumaticky, sore-throatish, and pre-eminently anti-picnicish’.
1882 G. M. Fenn Eli's Children xiii. 307 These fogs are very raw and cold, and rheumaticky to strangers, and you arn't got your great-coat on.
1928 Times 30 Jan. 7/5 (advt.) Seems to be a rheumaticky sort of place, too.
2000 K. Atkinson Emotionally Weird (2001) 213 For we live in a raincloud. Nora says she can feel the rheumaticky weather in her bones.
2. Affected by or suffering from rheumatism. Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > diseases of tissue > disorders of joints > [adjective] > rheumatism or arthritis > affected with
arthritic?a1425
arthritical1528
rheumatic1728
rheumaticky1852
osteoarthritic1891
polyarthritic1901
osteoarthrotic1964
1852 Tait's Edinb. Mag. 19 343 [She] netted with her own fair and rheumaticky fingers a handsome silk purse.
1886 B. Roosevelt Copper Queen II. x. 175 A rheumaticky man knows when it is going to rain.
1916 ‘B. Cable’ Doing their Bit iii. 42 The factory is a top back bedroom in a little side street, the machinery is one knock-kneed, rheumaticky lathe.
1922 J. Hall Across Mesa 169 ‘Die a rheumaticky old maid?’ she said, nervously.
1994 F. Forsyth Fist God (1995) 80 Don put an arm round the old man's thin, rheumaticky shoulders.
2004 D. E. Allen & G. Hatfield Medicinal Plants iii. 47 Boiled in sea-water and bandaged on hot, it [sc. Pelvetia canaliculata] was particularly used for easing rheumaticky knees.
3. Of pain or other symptoms: characteristic of or attributed to rheumatism.
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1855 Lancet 4 Aug. 103/1 Pains extending down the arms, which he calls ‘rheumaticky’.
1885 G. Weatherly Tim Thomson's Trial ix. 64 I thought the weather was going to change, for I had such rheumaticky pains all over me yesterday.
1976 A. Delius Border 365 He himself complained of a ‘damned rheumaticky stiffness everywhere’.
2001 Daily Express (Nexis) 21 July 65 Years ago they were also a standard remedy for all the rheumaticky aches and pains that often accompany that time of year.
B. n.
With the and plural agreement. People suffering from rheumatism as a class.
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1924 Brit. Bee Jrnl. & Bee-keepers' Advisor 1 May 198/1 A few bee stings should be acceptable, especially to the rheumaticky.
1932 H. V. Morton In Search of Wales xii. 242 Was not Taff's Well famous..as a healing spring? Did not the rheumaticky come from miles round to bathe in it?
1959 Times 27 Apr. (Rubber Indust. Suppl.) p. x/4 The middle-aged and rheumaticky.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1846