gout

plural gouts · alternative obsolete gowt

1. uncountablemedicineAn extremely painful inflammation of joints, especially of the big toe, caused by a metabolic defect resulting in the accumulation of uric acid in the blood and the deposition of urates around the joints.

   Once gout was confined largely to Western civilization (with some outliers, like the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan); now its ravages are global.

   2020 November 13, Ligaya Mishan, “Once the Disease of Gluttonous Aristocrats, Gout Is Now Tormenting the Masses”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 30 Nov 2020

   Synonyms: crystalline arthritis, gouty arthritis, urarthritis, rich man's disease

2. countableuncountableusuallyA drop; a spurt or splotch.

   Alternative forms: gut, gutt

   5 more examples

   I see thee still, / And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 136

   ... of whose wounds were undefined - and every throb of the veins added length to some of the red streams, that wound down the hollows of the indrawn cheeks - some of them ending in half-clotted gouts or drops.

   1832, Thomas Arnold, Godwin and Goda (cont'd.), page 155

   ... there sprang a gout of black and oozy blood. Whereat a great cry went up and James Mure fell forward on the sand as one suddenly stricken dead.

   1896, Samuel Rutherford Crockett, The Grey Man, W. Briggs, page 311

   ... gouts or drops from the hand of Zeus.

   1914, Arthur Bernard Cook, Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion, CUP Archive, page 323

   ... gouts or drops of water on their shield,[…]

   1921, The Bookman's Journal and Print Collector, page 45

3. countablerareuncountableA disease of wheat and cornstalks, caused by insect larvae.

present singular third person gouts · participle present gouting · participle past gouted · past gouted

1. intransitiveTo spurt.

   Dark blood gouts from the creature's brisket.

   2001, Stephen King, Peter Straub, Black House

plural gouts

1. alternativeAlternative form of gote (“sluice, ditch, drain; vault”).

   […] reported as to the gout at Aston Somerville […]

   1896 January 11, Evesham Advertiser

   3 more examples

   ... Anton's Gout, let it be enlarged to whatever extent it may. The Sill of Anton's Gout is 2 feet 3 inches higher than the Sill of Maud Foster, and the surface of the water, in times when there is a full quantity in the Witham, and as[…]

   1800, John RENNIE (the Elder.), Report concerning the drainage of Wildmore Fen and of the East and West Fens, page 5

   ... Anton's Gout, and the remainder was drained through Maud Foster's Gout, a sluice discharging the waters into Boston Haven, a mile below the town. In 1801, an Act was obtained for the drainage of these fens, the area of which was[…]

   1881, Henry Law, George Rowdon Burnell, Daniel Kinnear Clark, The Rudiments of Civil Engineering, page 555

   Vast quantities of water were discharged, which used to enter through the Gout at Langare." - Will. Chapman, Facts and Remarks relative to the Witham and the Welland, 1800, p. 29.

   1889, Edward Peacock, A Glossary of Words Used in the Wapentakes of Manley and Corringham, Lincolnshire, page 239

plural gouts

1. obsoleteTaste; relish.

   After a time, however, he became more sensible of the reviving influence proceeding from renewed energy; luxurious indolence had for ever lost to him its goût;[…]

   1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter XVIII, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 232

   1 more example

   A modern refinement is to put laver in the dripping-pan, which, in basting, imparts a high gout: or a large saddle may be served over a pound and a half of laver, stewed in brown sauce with catsup […]

   1870, The Cook and Housewife's Manual, 5th edition