Definition of "cacoethes" [cac•o•ë•thes]

• Compulsion; mania (noun)
• A bad quality or disposition in a disease; an incurable ulcer. (noun)

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• "Among the rest she was seized with what we men call a cacoethes of the needle: "a raging desire" for work."
• "'Tis most true, tenet insanabile multos scribendi cacoethes, and [72] there is no end of writing of books, as the wiseman found of old, in this [73] scribbling age, especially wherein [74] the number of books is without number, (as a worthy man saith,) presses be oppressed, and out of an itching humour that every man hath to show himself, [75] desirous of fame and honour"
• "Trimalchionian episode, and the subsequent pamphleteering would by no means eradicate this "cacoethes emendandi.""