neuralgicadj.

1829 T. P. Teale (title) A treatise on neuralgic diseases.

1834 J. Forbes et al. Cycl. Pract. Med. III. 167/2 The absence of heat, swelling, redness..make it merit the epithet neuralgic.

1861 C. Dickens Let. 11 June (1997) IX. 424 Neuralgic pains in the face have troubled me a good deal.

1950 S. J. Perelman Swiss Family Perelman vii. 108 Apart from an inconsequential neuralgic headache..I felt like a million dollars.

1997 Psychopathology 30 223 Such behavior can be misinterpreted as representing symptoms of neuralgic or psychiatric disorders.

1977 S. J. Perelman Let. 16 Oct. in Don't tread on Me (1987) 335 I'm now being put through the usual neuralgic gymnastics, the TV stuff, interviews, and crapola that attend the birth of a book.

1977 Time 5 Dec. 11/2 Much has been made of Israel's neuralgic reaction to the joint U.S.-Soviet declaration in the Middle East that Vance and Andrei Gromyko hammered out in late September.

1988 Christian Sci. Monitor 3 Feb. 17 The Herb Doctor pulls out an affidavit substantiating his claim that his medicine cured a Louisiana widow ‘of neuralgic sorrow for the loss of her husband and child, swept off in one night by the last epidemic’.

1992 F. Fukuyama End of Hist. & Last Man 176 Abortion, for example, has been one of the most neuralgic issues on the American social agenda for the past generation.

1999 N.Y. Times 11 Feb. a8/3 Instead of the United Nations being asked to ‘authorize’ the deployment, the Security Council will be asked to ‘endorse’ it, a British diplomat said... For the Americans the ‘neuralgic word “authorize”’ was avoided, the diplomat said.