chronic

comparative more chronic · superlative most chronic · alternative obsolete chronick

1. Being problematic over an extended period of time.

   chronic unemployment; chronic poverty; chronic anger; chronic life

   3 more examples

   Peer group support is important to displaced homemakers. The Displaced Homemakers' Network has done excellent work in helping women see that their problems do not have to be chronic.

   1980, Ruth Harriet Jacobs, Integrating Displaced Homemakers into the Economy, page 14

   These concerns were shared by other SNP women who told the Guardian there was a chronic lack of support from the party, including for those with younger families.

   2025 March 23, Libby Brooks and Severin Carrell, “‘Hostile environment’ drives many of SNP’s female MSPs to step down before 2026 vote”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 28 Mar 2025

   Community Board 2 has chronic sanitation issues that clog busy streets and create real quality-of-life problems for residents, workers and visitors.

   2026 April 17, Christopher Marte, quotee, “Mayor Mamdani Takes Major Step Toward Citywide Trash Containerization, Announces Six New Districts”, in NYC.gov, archived from the original on 03 Jul 2026

   Synonyms: diuturnal

2. medicineProlonged or slow to heal.

   chronic cough; chronic headache; chronic illness

   2 more examples

   So dreadful was the concentration of his glare that it seemed as if it must become chronic and stay like that for ever.

   1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 117

   In 2016, the CDC established guidelines for prescribing narcotics for chronic pain.

   2017 March 20, Nadia Kounang, “Prescriptions may hold clues to who gets hooked on opioids, study says”, in CNN, archived from the original on 06 Feb 2018

3. Of a person, suffering from an affliction that is prolonged or slow to heal.

   Chronic patients must learn to live with their condition.

4. Inveterate or habitual.

   He's a chronic smoker.

5. slangVery bad, awful.

   That concert was chronic.

   Synonyms: abysmal

6. informalExtremely serious.

   They left him in a chronic condition.

7. slangGood, great; "wicked".

   That was cool, chronic in fact.

   Synonyms: gnarly

plural chronics · alternative obsolete chronick

1. countableslanguncountableMarijuana, typically of high quality.

   It's ironic, I had the brew, she had the chronic

   1992, Ice Cube, “It Was a Good Day”, in The Predator

   1 more example

   Pimp had been kicking it with one of the young jawns hanging around the apartment. She was real young and had bumpy skin and slum rings on every finger. She told us she was living next door with her grandmother while her mother was in jail, and she took us up to the roof to smoke some chronic.

   2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 103

   Synonyms: bhang, benj, boo, broccoli, bud, buddha, cannabis, cheeba

2. countableuncountablemedicineA condition of extended duration, either continuous or marked by frequent recurrence. Sometimes implies a condition which worsens with each recurrence, though that is not inherent in the term.
3. countableuncountableA person who is chronic, such as a criminal reoffender or a person with chronic disease.

   Of fifty-five boys scoring four or more, fifteen were chronic offenders (out of twenty-three chronics altogether) […]

   2003, Philip Bean, Crime: Critical Concepts in Sociology, page 376

   4 more examples

   Wernersvill asylum is now practically filled, and, as it is peopled with able-bodied chronics, there will be but little annual movement of patients.

   1895, Report of the Committee on Lunacy to the Board of Public Charities of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, page 9

   And then there were the chronics, not only those with marked pathology but life-long sufferers from "indigestion" or migraine, who had been passed around from doctor to doctor with nothing but temporary relief.

   2001, Elizabeth Wright, A Brief Study Course in Homoeopathy, →ISBN, page 79

   Most congregations are full of wonderful people, but these chronics are also present in many churches. They come in three varieties -- the chronic havers of personal problems, the chronic complainers, and the chronic workaholics.

   2003, Lawrence W. Farris, Ten Commandments for Pastors New to a Congregation, →ISBN, page 59

   An Italian study (Francescato et al. 1979), which compared 137 women who had had more than one abortion with others who had aborted only once, revealed that the use of contraceptives was higher among the 'chronics', and that the contraceptives they employed were generally safer.

   2006, Eva Pattis Zoja, Abortion: Loss and Renewal in the Search for Identity, →ISBN, page 18