painter's colic

American  

noun

1. Pathology. lead poisoning causing intense intestinal pain.

---

painter's colic British  

noun

1. pathol another name for lead colic

---

Etymology

Origin of painter's colic

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

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 kissed her on the cheek; It seemed a harmless frolic; He's been laid up a week— They say, with painter's colic.

From The New Pun Book by Brown, Thomas A.

It is a very fine trade; those who are employed in it, at the end of a month or two, have the painter's colic; of three attacked, about one dies.

From Mysteries of Paris, V3 by Sue, Eugène

He kissed her on the cheek, It seemed a harmless frolic; He's been laid up a week They say, with painter's colic.

From Toaster's Handbook Jokes, Stories, and Quotations by Fanning, C. E. (Clara Elizabeth)

It is often cultivated for the beauty of its flowers; the leaves are considered a valuable cathartic, in moderate doses, especially in the cure of painter's colic; in large doses they are violently emetic.

From Catalogue of Economic Plants in the Collection of the U. S. Department of Agriculture by Saunders, William