# sorehead
## English
### Etymology

From sore +‎ head, perhaps specifically from the simile like (or mad as) a bear with a sore head.

### Pronunciation

* Audio (US):(file)

### Noun

sorehead (countable and uncountable, plural soreheads)
* A person who has a tendency to be angry or to feel offended.
    Don't be a sorehead! Forgive, forget and get on with your life.
** 1998, Phil Craft, Stan Friedland, An Orphan Has Many Parents, page 41:Of course, my competitive nature occasionally crossed the line into being a sorehead and poor loser.
** 2000, Nancy Capace, McGill, Ralph Emerson, entry in Encyclopedia of Tennessee, page 63,
    He$^{[McGill]}$ antagonized them by printing that they were a bunch of "failures . . . chronic soreheads . . . hoodlums, and toughs who have no faith in themselves."
** 2005, Ralph J. Sabock, Michael D. Sabock, Coaching: A Realistic Perspective, page 67:No matter what the size or type of community, you'll have critics, and they are not always just soreheads who are unhappy when a team loses.
* (derogatory, US, political slang) A politician who is dissatisfied through failure, lack of recognition, etc. [from 19th c]
** 1989, Richard M. Valelly, Radicalism in the States: The Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party and the American Political Economy, page 41:In most of these areas there was improvement between 1920, the year of the second Farmer-Labor ballot and the last election in which the coalition was able to use sorehead tactics, and the special senatorial election of 1923.
** 2002, Louise Carroll Wade, Chicago's Pride, page 331:Officials walked a tightrope because disappointed voters could join or, if need he, form an opposing coalition, and they could cozy up to "soreheads" who were encouraging merger with Chicago.
** 2007, Bessie Louise Pierce, A History of Chicago, Volume III: The Rise of a Modern City, 1871-1893, page 341,
    Despite the opposition of professional politicians of unsavory reputation and men the Tribune described as “irresponsible soreheads,” the Medill ticket swept into office with a flatteringly large vote.
* (uncountable) Infection in sheep by the nematode Elaeophora schneideri; elaeophorosis.
** 1998, David Petersen, Elkheart: A Personal Tribute to Wapiti and Their World, page 107:And sometimes, the bugs themselves are the predators, the killers and consumers of elk. I think of the green-headed horsefly and its bloody conspirator, the sorehead roundworm—Elaeophora schneideri.
** 2012, D. G. Pugh, N. (Nickie) Baird, Sheep and Goat Medicine, unnumbered page,
    Elaeophora schneideri is a filarial nematode that has been reported primarily in wildlife species in the western United States, including mule deer and bighorn sheep.$^{36,37}$ Elaeophorosis (sorehead) is uncommon in sheep and goats.
* (uncountable) Fowlpox.
** 1905, F. L. Hoogs, Paradise of the Pacific, volumes 18-19, page 45:Sorehead is a prevailing trouble in Hawaii, but I am convinced that much sorehead, if not all of it, can be averted if we keep our chicks off the ground until they are at least three months old.
** 1922, University of Hawaii (Honolulu), Agricultural Dept, Annual Report of the Agricultural Department, Volume 4, page 103,
    The two principal causes of death among chicks has been sorehead and coccidiosis.
** 1977, Kathryn Tucker Windham, Southern Cooking to Remember, page 106:Such ailments as sorehead and pip also took their toll. Children learned early not to throw watermelon rinds where the chickens could peck them: pecking watermelon rinds gave chickens sorehead.

#### Synonyms

* (Elaeophora schneideri infection in sheep): elaeophorosis, filarial dermatitis

#### Related terms

* dickhead
* blockhead

#### Translations
### Anagrams

* rosehead