English

Noun

sorehead ‎(countable and uncountable, plural soreheads)

1. A person who has a tendency to be angry or to feel offended.

   Don't be a sorehead! Forgive, forget and get on with your life.

   • 1998, Phil Craft, Stan Friedland, An Orphan Has Many Parents, page 41,

     Of course, my competitive nature occasionally crossed the line into being a sorehead and poor loser.

   • 2000, Nancy Capace, McGill, Ralph Emerson, entry in Encyclopedia of Tennessee, page 63,

     He^[McGill] antagonized them by printing that they were a bunch of "failures . . . chronic soreheads . . . hoodlums, and toughs who have no faith in themselves."

   • 2005, Ralph J. Sabock, Michael D. Sabock, Coaching: A Realistic Perspective, page 67,

     No matter what the size or type of community, you'll have critics, and they are not always just soreheads who are unhappy when a team loses.

2. (derogatory, US, political slang) A politician who is dissatisfied through failure, lack of recognition, etc. [from 19th c]
   • 1989, Richard M. Valelly, Radicalism in the States: The Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party and the American Political Economy, page 41,

     In most of these areas there was improvement between 1920, the year of the second Farmer-Labor ballot and the last election in which the coalition was able to use sorehead tactics, and the special senatorial election of 1923.

   • 2002, Louise Carroll Wade, Chicago's Pride, page 331,

     Officials walked a tightrope because disappointed voters could join or, if need he, form an opposing coalition, and they could cozy up to "soreheads" who were encouraging merger with Chicago.

   • 2007, Bessie Louise Pierce, A History of Chicago, Volume III: The Rise of a Modern City, 1871-1893, page 341,

     Despite the opposition of professional politicians of unsavory reputation and men the Tribune described as “irresponsible soreheads,” the Medill ticket swept into office with a flatteringly large vote.

3. (uncountable) Infection in sheep by the nematode Elaeophora schneideri; elaeophorosis.
   • 1998, David Petersen, Elkheart: A Personal Tribute to Wapiti and Their World, page 107,

     And sometimes, the bugs themselves are the predators, the killers and consumers of elk.

     I think of the green-headed horsefly and its bloody conspirator, the sorehead roundworm—Elaeophora schneideri.

   • 2012, D. G. Pugh, N. (Nickie) Baird, Sheep and Goat Medicine, unnumbered page,

     Elaeophora schneideri is a filarial nematode that has been reported primarily in wildlife species in the western United States, including mule deer and bighorn sheep.^36,37 Elaeophorosis (sorehead) is uncommon in sheep and goats.

4. (uncountable) Fowlpox.
   • 1905, F. L. Hoogs, Paradise of the Pacific, Volumes 18-19, page 45,

     Sorehead is a prevailing trouble in Hawaii, but I am convinced that much sorehead, if not all of it, can be averted if we keep our chicks off the ground until they are at least three months old.

   • 1922, University of Hawaii (Honolulu), Agricultural Dept, Annual Report of the Agricultural Department, Volume 4, page 103,

     The two principal causes of death among chicks has^[sic] been sorehead and coccidiosis.

   • 1977, Kathryn Tucker Windham, Southern Cooking to Remember, page 106,

     Such ailments as sorehead and pip also took their toll. Children learned early not to throw watermelon rinds where the chickens could peck them: pecking watermelon rinds gave chickens sorehead.

Synonyms

• (Elaeophora schneideri infection in sheep): elaeophorosis, filarial dermatitis