a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. vii. xlv. 394 Bolismus is inmoderat and vnmesurable, as it were an houndis appetite.]
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xviii. xxvii. 1169 Houndes haueþ contynual bolysme..and beþ somtyme so punysched wiþ hunger þat þay waxeþ rabbissh and woode.
1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas ii. i. 342 One-while the Boulime, then the Anorexie..rage with monstrous ryot.
1665 R. Boyle 734 He now thinks the chief cause of the Bulimia to consist in certain steams, that do peculiarly affect the stomack, which they gnaw and distend.
1686 R. Plot viii. 301 A strange Boulimy..seized one Brian Careswell..who would knaw and eat both Linnen and Woollen.
1703 tr. M. Ettmüller (ed. 2) 54 In a Bulimus the Causes are somewhat meeker, attended by a dullness or want of Spirits.
1767 117 When the Hunger is great, but not lasting, and attended with Faintings and a Failure of Breath, it is called a Boulimus, and is very dangerous.
1780 W. Beckford 19 Hemmeline, who had long been troubled with a boulomee, or voracious appetite.
1813 J. Blackall 233 That author..wholly omits to notice the boulimy or inordinate appetite, which forms so striking a feature of the diabetes mellitus.
1826 27 May 267/1 The appetite may..be simply in excess, a state that has been called cynorexia, bulimia, &c.
1898 Aug. 435/1 There are, however, a number of abnormal conditions which are classed under the general heading of bulimia, where an excessive appetite is present.
1948 39 119 Abnormalities of the need for food [are classified] as ‘anorexia’, ‘bulimia’, and ‘parorexia’.
1978 23 June 2688/1 A possible disorder (bulimia), which included self-induced vomiting as a feature, has been proposed by the American Psychiatric Association's Task Force on Nomenclature and Statistics.
1979 G. Russell in 9 429 (title) Bulimia nervosa: an ominous variant of anorexia nervosa.
1985 22 June 10/2 She developed another slimmer's disease—bulimia nervosa. ‘For four months I stuffed myself with food then purged myself with laxatives.’
2006 (National ed.) 7 May iia. 20/2 She struggled for many years with bulimia.