rheum

plural rheums

1. uncountableThin or watery discharge of mucus or serum, especially from the eyes or nose, formerly thought to cause disease.First known use 14th c.

   He wore about his shoulders a heavy cloak; his pale face was drawn and his voice broken with rheum.

   1916, James Joyce, chapter III, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 123

   2 more examples

   You that did voide your rume vpon my beard, / And foote me as you ſpurne a ſtranger curre / Ouer your threſhold, […]

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 166

   [T]thronging theaters of people (as well Aliens as Engliſhmen) hiued thither about the ſelling of fiſh and Herring, from Saint Michael to Saint Martin, and there built ſutlers booths and tabernacles, to canopie their heads in from the rhewme of the heauens, or the clouds diſſoluing Cataracts.

   1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 10

2. countableuncountableIllness or disease thought to be caused by such secretions; a catarrh, a cold; rheumatism.First known use 14th c.

   1 more example

   And not as ſome yeeres ſince, I ſaw a Deane of S. Hillarie of Poictiers, reduced by reaſon and the incommoditie of his melancholy to ſuch a continuall ſolitarineſſe, that when I entered into his chamber he had never remooved one ſteppe out of it in twoo and twenty yeares before: yet had all his faculties free and eaſie, onely a rheume excepted that fell into his ſtomake.

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of the Recompences or Rewards of Honour”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 227

3. countablepoeticuncountableTears.First known use 16th c.

   Rich. And ſay, what ſtore of parting tears were ſhed? / Aum. Faith none for me: except the Northeaſt wind / Which then grew bitterly againſt our face, / Awak’d the ſleepie rhewme, and ſo by chance / Did grace our hollow parting with a teare.

   1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], page 27, column 2

plural rheums

1. abbreviationclippinginformalClipping of rheumatologist.

   1 more example

   […] the other rheumatologist in the practice I saw after that first meeting was irritated because my history was completely wrong. Not [irritated] at me, [but] the other rheum. […] I had to switch rheums at one point due to insurance problems. […] Thank god my good rheum’s office sorted out the insurance.

   2025 July 11, "bookwbng5" (username), [2025 July 11, "bookwbng5" (username), comment on "Bad first rheumatologist experience" on r/rheumatoid, on Reddit: comment] on "Bad first rheumatologist experience" on r/rheumatoid, on Reddit