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

Knowledge only generates a morbid fussiness, as with Mr. Jerome's celebrated Cockney who discovered himself to be possessed of every ailment in the medical dictionary except housemaid's knee.

From Without Prejudice by Zangwill, Israel

The other is Charlotte Swain, who apparently has a housemaid's knee.

From Three Years in Tristan da Cunha by Barrow, Katherine Mary

"Tout le Reste de Madame de K." may a little remind an English reader of the venerable chestnut about the Bishop and the housemaid's knee; but the application is different.

From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century by Saintsbury, George