housemaid's knee

American  

noun

Pathology.

1. inflammation of the bursa over the front of the kneecap.

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housemaid's knee British  

noun

1. Technical name: prepatellar bursitis.  inflammation and swelling of the bursa in front of the kneecap, caused esp by constant kneeling on a hard surface

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Etymology

Origin of housemaid's knee

First recorded in 1825–35

Example Sentences

They were not to be confused with the socially less acceptable housemaid's knee, which is a bursitis.

From Time Magazine Archive

Retorted Mansfield: "If I pray any more, I'm going to have housemaid's knee."

From Time Magazine Archive

As there is housemaid's knee, and painter's colic, so there is millionaire's melancholia.

From Mrs. Budlong's Christmas Presents by Hughes, Rupert

He took my towel and dressed Tait in it, and for all he cared I would be swimming in that beastly lagoon yet, and dying of cramp, and nervous prostration, and housemaid's knee.

From Mates at Billabong by Bruce, Mary Grant

Of the countless housemaids in whom the prepatellar bursa is subjected to friction and pressure, only a small proportion become the subjects of housemaid's knee.

From Manual of Surgery Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition. by Thomson, Alexis