Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Severe abdominal pain caused by spasm, obstruction, or distension of any of the hollow viscera, such as the intestines.
  • noun A condition of unknown cause seen in infants less than three months old, marked by periods of inconsolable crying lasting for hours at a time for at least three weeks.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or affecting the colon.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In pathology, severe spasms of pain in the abdomen or bowels; specifically, spasms of pain arising from perverted and excessive peristaltic contractions.
  • In anatomy, pertaining to the colon or large intestine: as, a colic artery.
  • Affecting the bowels.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) A severe paroxysmal pain in the abdomen, due to spasm, obstruction, or distention of some one of the hollow viscera.
  • noun the severe pain produced by the passage of a gallstone from the liver or gall bladder through the bile duct.
  • noun pain due to distention of the intestines by gas.
  • noun a violent form of intestinal colic, associated with obstinate constipation, produced by chronic lead poisoning.
  • noun the severe pain produced by the passage of a calculus from the kidney through the ureter.
  • noun See Intestinal colic, above.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to colic; affecting the bowels.
  • adjective (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the colon.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun pathology Severe pains that grip the abdomen or the disease that causes such pains (due to intestinal or bowel related problems).
  • noun A medicinal plant used to relieve one of such symptoms.
  • adjective Relating to the colon; colonic.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun acute abdominal pain (especially in infants)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English colik, affecting the colon, colic, from Old French colique, from Latin cōlica (passiō), (suffering) of the colon, feminine of cōlicus, from Greek kōlikos, from kolon, kōlon, colon.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the French adjective, colique, which referred to the lower part of the intestinal cavity. Prior to that it comes from the Latin, coliculus and earlier from Greek, kolik-os with the same meaning.

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