From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishchronicchron‧ic /ˈkrɒnɪk $ ˈkrɑː-/ ●●○ adjective 1 MILONG TIMEa chronic disease or illness is one that continues for a long time and cannot be cured → acute chronic arthritis chronic asthma chronic heart disease2 SERIOUS SITUATIONa chronic problem is one that continues for a long time and cannot easily be solved chronic unemployment There is a chronic shortage of teachers.3 → chronic alcoholic/gambler etc4 BAD British English informal extremely bad The food was absolutely chronic! —chronically /-kli/ adverb patients who are chronically ill The service is chronically underfunded.
Examples from the Corpus
chronic• He suffers from chronic asthma.• No data exist for outcome of the untreated chronic condition followed for more than five years.• the chronic decay of the inner city areas• We need to take steps to counter the chronic decline in our export market.• In the chronic disease eggs are present and L3 can be identified following faecal culture.• Steen suffers from chronic high blood pressure.• Older people can quickly become dispirited and depressed by chronic illness.• Her injuries have left her with chronic migraine headaches, seizures, insomnia, nausea and short-term memory loss.• Some of these patients benefit from referral to a chronic pain center.• It brought to light chronic problems with staff and aging equipment.• China has a chronic shortage of capital, so it must encourage saving.• chronic unemployment• In women, chronic use of alcohol reduces vaginal response, and it can cause irregular menstruation and induce premature menopause.• California is trying to cope with chronic water shortages.Origin chronic (1400-1500) French chronique, from Greek chronikos “of time”, from chronos; CHRON- 