Word.ws English Dictionary

marthambles

marthambles noun: a particular ailment unknown to, and uncurable by, medical science.

Noun

marthambles (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) A particular ailment unknown to, and uncurable by, medical science
    • These are to give notice, (for the benefit of the public,) that there is newly arrived from his travels, a gentleman, who, after above forty years' study, hath, by a wonderful blessing on his endeavours, discovered, as well the nature as the infallible cure of several strange diseases, which...circa 1700, Dr. Tufts, handbill, as reproduced in Relics of Literature by Ruben Percy, published 1828, page 218
    • If you can manage an attack of the Marthambles, we could persuade one to say an incantation over you. You would then be anointed with infallible remedies -- say, live earworms mashed into alcohol.1971, Dorothy Dunnett, The Ringed Castle, Vintage, published 1997, →ISBN, page 224

Forms of marthambles

alternative formMarthambles
alternative formmarkambles

Origin of marthambles

Apparently coined by a Dr. Tufts of early 18th-century London, as the name of one of five diseases his medicine was claimed to be able to cure. According to C.J.S. Thompson's "The Quacks of Old London" (page 110), the marthambles is one of several nonexistent diseases invented by Dr. Tufts in a pamphlet circa 1700 in order to sell his tonics and medicines. Other diseases mentioned in Tufts' pamphlet are the "Strong Fives", the "Moon Pall", and the "Hockogrockle". Tufts claimed to have encountered these diseases on his travels over a period of forty years, and that he could cure them all.

Questions about marthambles

What does marthambles mean?
Marthambles means a particular ailment unknown to, and uncurable by, medical science.
What part of speech is marthambles?
Marthambles is a noun.

Words near marthambles in the dictionary

  1. Martha's Vineyard Sign Language
  2. Marthaguy
  3. Marthaler
  4. Marthalers
  5. Martham
  6. marthambles
  7. Marthas
  8. marthasteroside
  9. Marthavale
  10. Marthe
  11. marthozite

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: marthambles (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “marthambles.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/marthambles. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.