spleen

• POS: Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

spleen, n. [L. splen, Gr. the milt or spleen, affection of the spleen; cf. L. lien, plihan, plīhan.].

•  A peculiar glandlike but ductless organ found near the stomach or intestine of most vertebrates and connected with the vascular system; the milt. Its exact function in not known.  [1913 Webster]
•  Anger; latent spite; ill humor; malice; as, to vent one's spleen.  [1913 Webster]

  "In noble minds some dregs remain,
  Not yet purged off, of spleen and sour disdain."  [1913 Webster]
•  A fit of anger; choler.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
•  A sudden motion or action; a fit; a freak; a whim.  [1913 Webster]

  "A thousand spleens bear her a thousand ways."  [1913 Webster]
•  Melancholy; hypochondriacal affections.  [1913 Webster]

  "Bodies changed to various forms by spleen."  [1913 Webster]

  "There is a luxury in self-dispraise:
  And inward self-disparagement affords
  To meditative spleen a grateful feast."  [1913 Webster]
•  A fit of immoderate laughter or merriment.  [1913 Webster]

  "Thy silly thought enforces my spleen."  [1913 Webster]

spleen, v. t. 

 To dislke.  Bp. Hacket.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

spleen, n.
1 an abdominal organ involved in maintaining the proper condition of blood in most vertebrates.
2 lowness of spirits; moroseness, ill temper, spite (from the earlier belief that the spleen was the seat of such feelings) (a fit of spleen; vented their spleen).

Derivative

spleenful adj. spleeny adj.

Etymology

ME f. OF esplen f. L splen f. Gk splen

THESAURUS

spleen

abdomen, acerbity, acid, acidity, acidulousness, acrimony, anger, angst, anguish, animosity, anus, anxiety, appendix, asperity, bad humor, bad temper, bile, biliousness, bitter resentment, bitterness, bitterness of spirit, blind gut, boredness, boredom, bowels, brain, causticity, cecum, cheerlessness, choler, colon, corrosiveness, despite, despitefulness, discomfort, discomposure, discontent, dislike, dispiritedness, displeasure, disquiet, dissatisfaction, dread, dullness, duodenum, emptiness, endocardium, ennui, entrails, existential woe, fed-upness, flatness, foregut, gall, giblets, gizzard, gnashing of teeth, grimness, grudge, guts, hard feelings, heart, heartburning, hindgut, ill, ill humor, ill nature, ill temper, innards, inner mechanism, inquietude, insides, internals, intestine, inwards, jadedness, jejunum, joylessness, kidney, kishkes, lack of pleasure, large intestine, life-weariness, liver, liver and lights, lung, malaise, melancholy, midgut, nausea, nongratification, nonsatisfaction, painfulness, perineum, pump, pylorus, rancor, rankling, rectum, satiation, satiety, savorlessness, slow burn, small intestine, soreness, sourness, staleness, stomach, taedium vitae, tastelessness, tediousness, tedium, ticker, tiredness, tripes, uncomfortableness, unease, uneasiness, unhappiness, unpleasure, unsatisfaction, vermiform appendix, vexation of spirit, virulence, viscera, vitals, wearifulness, weariness, works, world-weariness, wrath

ROGET THESAURUS

spleen

Dejection

N dejection, dejectedness, depression, prosternation, lowness of spirits, depression of spirits, weight on the spirits, oppression on the spirits, damp on the spirits, low spirits, bad spirits, drooping spirits, depressed spirits, heart sinking, heaviness of heart, failure of heart, heaviness, infestivity, gloom, weariness, taedium vitae, disgust of life, mal du pays, anhedonia, melancholy, sadness, il penseroso, melancholia, dismals, blues, lachrymals, mumps, dumps, blue devils, doldrums, vapors, megrims, spleen, horrors, hypochondriasis, pessimism, la maladie sans maladie, despondency, slough of Despond, disconsolateness, hope deferred, blank despondency, voiceless woe, prostration of soul, broken heart, despair, cave of despair, cave of Trophonius demureness, gravity, solemnity, long face, grave face, hypochondriac, seek sorrow, self-tormentor, heautontimorumenos, malade imaginaire, medecin tant pis, croaker, pessimist, mope, mopus, affliction, sorry sight, memento mori, damper, wet blanket, Job's comforter, cheerless, joyless, spiritless, uncheerful, uncheery, unlively, unhappy, melancholy, dismal, somber, dark, gloomy, triste, clouded, murky, lowering, frowning, lugubrious, funereal, mournful, lamentable, dreadful, dreary, flat, dull, dull as a beetle, dull as ditchwater, depressing, melancholy as a gib cat, oppressed with melancholy, a prey to melancholy, downcast, downhearted, down in the mouth, down in one's luck, heavy-hearted, in the dumps, down in the dumps, in the suds, in the sulks, in the doldrums, in doleful dumps, in bad humor, sullen, mumpish, dumpish, mopish, moping, moody, glum, sulky, out of sorts, out of humor, out of heart, out of spirits, ill at ease, low spirited, in low spirits, a cup too low, weary, discouraged, disheartened, desponding, chapfallen, chopfallen, jaw fallen, crest fallen, sad, pensive, penseroso, tristful, dolesome, doleful, woebegone, lacrymose, lachrymose, in tears, melancholic, hypped, hypochondriacal, bilious, jaundiced, atrabilious, saturnine, splenetic, lackadaisical, serious, sedate, staid, stayed, grave as a judge, grave as an undertaker, grave as a mustard pot, sober, sober as a judge, solemn, demure, grim, grim-faced, grim-visaged, rueful, wan, long-faced, disconsolate, unconsolable, inconsolable, forlorn, comfortless, desolate, desole, sick at heart, soul sick, heart sick, au desespoir, in despair, lost, overcome, broken down, borne down, bowed down, heartstricken, cut up, dashed, sunk, unnerved, unmanned, down fallen, downtrodden, broken-hearted, careworn, with a long face, with tears in one's eyes, sadly, the countenance falling, the heart failing, the heart sinking within one, a plague of sighing and grief, thick-ey'd musing and curs'd melancholy, the sickening pang of hope deferred.

Resentment

N resentment, displeasure, animosity, anger, wrath, indignation, exasperation, bitter resentment, wrathful indignation, pique, umbrage, huff, miff, soreness, dudgeon, acerbity, virulence, bitterness, acrimony, asperity, spleen, gall, heart-burning, heart-swelling, rankling, ill humor, bad humor, ill temper, bad temper, irascibility, ill blood, revenge, excitement, irritation, warmth, bile, choler, ire, fume, pucker, dander, ferment, ebullition, towering passion, acharnement, angry mood, taking, pet, tiff, passion, fit, tantrums, burst, explosion, paroxysm, storm, rage, fury, desperation, violence, fire and fury, vials of wrath, gnashing of teeth, hot blood, high words, scowl, sulks, affront, provocation, offense, indignity, grudge, crow to pluck, bone to pick, sore subject, casus belli, ill turn, outrage, Furies, Eumenides, buffet, slap in the face, box on the ear, rap on the knuckles, angry, wrath, irate, ireful, wrathful, cross, Achillean, sulky, bitter, virulent, acrimonious &c (discourteous), violent, warm, burning, boiling, boiling over, fuming, raging, foaming, foaming at the mouth, convulsed with rage, offended, waxy, acharne, wrought, worked up, indignant, hurt, sore, set against, fierce, wild, rageful, furious, mad with rage, fiery, infuriate, rabid, savage, relentless, flushed with anger, flushed with rage, in a huff, in a stew, in a fume, in a pucker, in a passion, in a rage, in a fury, in a taking, in a way, on one's high ropes, up in arms, in high dudgeon, angrily, in the height of passion, in the heat of passion, in the heat of the moment, Int, tantaene animis coelestibus irae!, marry come up!, zounds!, 'sdeath!, one's blood being up, one's back being up, one's monkey being up, fervens difficili bile jecur, the gorge rising, eyes flashing fire, the blood rising, the blood boiling, haeret lateri lethalis arundo, beware the fury of a patient man, furor arma ministrat, ira furor brevis est, quem Jupiter vult perdere dementat prius, What, drunk with choler?.

Sullenness

N sullenness, morosity, spleen, churlishness, irascibility, moodiness, perversity, obstinacy, torvity, spinosity, crabbedness, ill temper, bad temper, ill humor, bad humor, sulks, dudgeon, mumps, dumps, doldrums, fit of the sulks, bouderie, black looks, scowl, grouch, huff, sullen, sulky, ill-tempered, ill-humored, ill-affected, ill- disposed, grouty, in an ill temper, in a bad temper, in a shocking temper, in an ill humor, in a bad humor, in a shocking humor, out of temper, out of humor, knaggy, torvous, crusty, crabbed, sour, sour as a crab, surly, moody, spleenish, spleenly, splenetic, cankered, cross, crossgrained, perverse, wayward, humorsome, restiff, restive, cantankerous, intractable, exceptious, sinistrous, deaf to reason, unaccommodating, rusty, froward, cussed, dogged, grumpy, glum, grim, grum, morose, frumpish, in the sulks, out of sorts, scowling, glowering, growling, grouchy, peevish.