Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - chronic

~ adj usually before noun 1 a chronic disease or illness is one that cannot be cured  (He's been suffering from chronic arthritis for years now.) 2 a problem or difficulty that you cannot get rid of or that keeps coming back  (a chronic shortage of language teachers | chronic unemployment) 3 chronic alcoholic/gambler etc someone who suffers from a particular problem or type of behaviour for a long time and cannot stop  (Jake was a chronic alcoholic who could not hold down a job.) 4 BrE informal extremely bad  (Don't go to that new restaurant, I've heard the food's chronic.) - chronically adj  (chronically ill)