gout

noun

1. (uncountable)An extremely painful inflammation of joints, especially of the big toe, caused by a metabolic defect resulting in the accumulation of uric acid in the blood and the deposition of urates around the joints.

   “Once gout was confined largely to Western civilization (with some outliers, like the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan); now its ravages are global.”

2. (countable, uncountable, usually)A drop; a spurt or splotch.

   “Alternative forms: gut, gutt”

   “I see thee still, / And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood.”

   “... of whose wounds were undefined - and every throb of the veins added length to some of the red streams, that wound down the hollows of the indrawn cheeks - some of them ending in half-clotted gouts or drops.”

   “... there sprang a gout of black and oozy blood. Whereat a great cry went up and James Mure fell forward on the sand as one suddenly stricken dead.”

   “... gouts or drops from the hand of Zeus.”

3. (countable, rare, uncountable)A disease of wheat and cornstalks, caused by insect larvae.
4. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of gote (“sluice, ditch, drain; vault”).

   “... Anton's Gout, let it be enlarged to whatever extent it may. The Sill of Anton's Gout is 2 feet 3 inches higher than the Sill of Maud Foster, and the surface of the water, in times when there is a full quantity in the Witham, and as[…]”

   “... Anton's Gout, and the remainder was drained through Maud Foster's Gout, a sluice discharging the waters into Boston Haven, a mile below the town. In 1801, an Act was obtained for the drainage of these fens, the area of which was[…]”

   “Vast quantities of water were discharged, which used to enter through the Gout at Langare." - Will. Chapman, Facts and Remarks relative to the Witham and the Welland, 1800, p. 29.”

   “[…] reported as to the gout at Aston Somerville […]”

5. (obsolete)Taste; relish.

   “After a time, however, he became more sensible of the reviving influence proceeding from renewed energy; luxurious indolence had for ever lost to him its goût;[…]”

   “A modern refinement is to put laver in the dripping-pan, which, in basting, imparts a high gout: or a large saddle may be served over a pound and a half of laver, stewed in brown sauce with catsup […]”

verb

1. (intransitive)To spurt.

   “Dark blood gouts from the creature's brisket.”