Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An inflammation followed by itchy irritation on the hands, feet, or ears, resulting from exposure to moist cold.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To afflict with chilblains; produce chilblains in: as, my feet were chilblained.
- noun A blain or sore produced by cold; an erythematous condition of the hands or feet, accompanied with inflammation, pain, and sometimes ulceration; erythema; pernio.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A blain, sore, or inflammatory swelling of the feet or hands, produced by exposure to cold, and attended by itching, pain, and sometimes ulceration.
- transitive verb To produce chilblains upon.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An itchy purple red inflammation of the skin, especially of the hands, feet and ears. It occurs when
capillaries below the skin are damaged by exposure to cold weather.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun inflammation of the hands and feet caused by exposure to cold and moisture
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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DESCRIPTION: A chilblain is the swelling and inflammation of body tissue as a result of exposure to cold temperatures.
THE NATURAL REMEDY BIBLE JOHN LUST 2003
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It is not easy to believe that others are more successful, but the popular renown of the specific survives in spite of all, probably thanks to a simple accident of identity between the name of the remedy and that of the infirmity: the Provençal for "chilblain" is _tigno_.
Social Life in the Insect World Jean-Henri Fabre 1869
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(_c_) Frequently the whole foot is like a big "chilblain" and is very hot, red and swollen.
1914 John Denton Pinkstone French 1888
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Mind, and muscle, and stamina, and soul, were challenged in a contest with this Shorty, a man who had never opened the books, and who did not know grand opera from rag-time, nor an epic from a chilblain.
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"My fellow man sent me to the chilblain capital of the world," Petinos retorted.
Bridge of the Separator Turtledove, Harry 2005
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But I was not so to be finished off, though feeling in my knuckles now as if it were a blueness and a sense of chilblain.
Lorna Doone Richard Doddridge 2004
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You don't hardly hear of chilblain feet now, but then most every child you saw had cracked heels.
Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Georgia Narratives, Part 4 Work Projects Administration
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The train is full of very painful feet: like a form of large burning chilblain all over the foot, and you can't do anything for them, poor lambs.
Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front, 1914-1915 Anonymous
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When sliced, and applied externally, the raw Onion serves by its pungent and essential oil to quicken the circulation, and to redden the skin of the particular surface treated in this way; very usefully so in the case of an unbroken chilblain, or to counteract neuralgic pain; but in its crude state the bulb is not emollient or demulcent.
Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure William Thomas Fernie
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Perhaps one of the chilblain-fingered girls behind the counters down below had been the "Sympathiser" to whom she had been indebted for a shilling.
Mrs. Day's Daughters Mary E. Mann
john commented on the word chilblain
“Manhattan rarely sees conditions like that or, for that matter, weather that calls for a coat of oil-finished cloth to ward off chilblains.�?
The New York Times, The Fashion Report of 1920 , by Guy Trebay, October 22, 2008
October 23, 2008
trivet commented on the word chilblain
I very much enjoyed that article.
October 23, 2008