Adjacent Words

Mad definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MAD, a.
1. Disordered in intellect; distracted; furious.
We must bind our passions in chains, lest like mad folks, they break their locks and bolts.
2. Proceeding from disordered intellect or expressing it; as a mad demeanor.
3. Enraged; furious; as a mad bull.
And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them, even to strange cities. Acts 26.
4. Inflamed to excess with desire; excited with violent and unreasonable passion or appetite; infatuated; followed properly by after.
The world is running made after farce, the extremity of bad poetry.
"Mad upon their idols," would be better rendered, "Mad after their idols." Jeremiah 1.
5. Distracted with anxiety or trouble; extremely perplexed.
Thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes--
Deutoronomy 28.
6. Infatuated with folly.
The spiritual man is mad. Hosea 9.
7. Inflamed with anger; very angry. [This is a common and perhaps the most general sense of the word in America. It is thus used by Arbuthnot, and is perfectly proper.]
8. Proceeding from folly or infatuation.
Mad wars destroy in one year the works of many years of peace.
MAD, v.t. To make mad, furious or angry.
MAD, v.i. To be mad, furious or wild.
MAD"

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: roused to anger; "stayed huffy a good while"- Mark Twain; "she gets mad when you wake her up so early"; "mad at his friend"; "sore over a remark" [syn: huffy, mad, sore]
2: affected with madness or insanity; "a man who had gone mad" [syn: brainsick, crazy, demented, disturbed, mad, sick, unbalanced, unhinged]
3: marked by uncontrolled excitement or emotion; "a crowd of delirious baseball fans"; "something frantic in their gaiety"; "a mad whirl of pleasure" [syn: delirious, excited, frantic, mad, unrestrained]
4: very foolish; "harebrained ideas"; "took insane risks behind the wheel"; "a completely mad scheme to build a bridge between two mountains" [syn: harebrained, insane, mad]

Merriam Webster's

abbreviation mutual assured destruction; mutually assured destruction

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective (madder; maddest) Etymology: Middle English medd, madd, from Old English gem?d, past participle of *gem?dan to madden, from gem?d silly, mad; akin to Old High German gimeit foolish, crazy Date: before 12th century 1. disordered in mind ; insane 2. a. completely unrestrained by reason and judgment <driven mad by the pain> b. incapable of being explained or accounted for <a mad decision> 3. carried away by intense anger ; furious <mad at myself> <mad about the delay> 4. carried away by enthusiasm or desire <mad about horses> <mad for the boy next door> 5. affected with rabies ; rabid 6. marked by wild gaiety and merriment ; hilarious 7. intensely excited ; frantic <mad with jealousy> 8. marked by intense and often chaotic activity ; wild <a mad scramble> • maddish adjective II. verb (madded; madding) Date: 14th century madden III. noun Date: 1834 1. a fit or mood of bad temper 2. anger, fury

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & v. --adj. (madder, maddest) 1 insane; having a disordered mind. 2 (of a person, conduct, or an idea) wildly foolish. 3 (often foll. by about, on) wildly excited or infatuated (mad about football; is chess-mad). 4 colloq. angry. 5 (of an animal) rabid. 6 wildly light-hearted. --v. (madded, madding) 1 tr. US make angry. 2 intr. archaic be mad; act madly (the madding crowd). Phrases and idioms: like mad colloq. with great energy, intensity, or enthusiasm. mad keen colloq. extremely eager. Derivatives: madness n. Etymology: OE gemæded part. form f. gemad mad

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mad Mad, n. [Cf. W. mad a male child, a boy.] 1. A slattern. [Prov. Eng.] 2. The name of a female fairy, esp. the queen of the fairies; and hence, sometimes, any fairy. --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mad Mad, obs. p. p. of Made. --Chaucer.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mad Mad, a. [Compar. Madder; superl. Maddest.] [AS. gem?d, gem[=a]d, mad; akin to OS. gem?d foolish, OHG. gameit, Icel. mei?a to hurt, Goth. gam['a]ids weak, broken. ?.] 1. Disordered in intellect; crazy; insane. I have heard my grandsire say full oft, Extremity of griefs would make men mad. --Shak. 2. Excited beyond self-control or the restraint of reason; inflamed by violent or uncontrollable desire, passion, or appetite; as, to be mad with terror, lust, or hatred; mad against political reform. It is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols. --Jer. 1. 88. And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. --Acts xxvi. 11. 3. Proceeding from, or indicating, madness; expressing distraction; prompted by infatuation, fury, or extreme rashness. ``Mad demeanor.'' --Milton. Mad wars destroy in one year the works of many years of peace. --Franklin. The mad promise of Cleon was fulfilled. --Jowett (Thucyd.). 4. Extravagant; immoderate. ``Be mad and merry.'' --Shak. ``Fetching mad bounds.'' --Shak. 5. Furious with rage, terror, or disease; -- said of the lower animals; as, a mad bull; esp., having hydrophobia; rabid; as, a mad dog. 6. Angry; out of patience; vexed; as, to get mad at a person. [Colloq.] 7. Having impaired polarity; -- applied to a compass needle. [Colloq.] Like mad, like a mad person; in a furious manner; as, to run like mad. --L'Estrange. To run mad. (a) To become wild with excitement. (b) To run wildly about under the influence of hydrophobia; to become affected with hydrophobia. To run mad after, to pursue under the influence of infatuation or immoderate desire. ``The world is running mad after farce.'' --Dryden.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mad Mad, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Madded; p. pr. & vb. n. Madding.] To make mad or furious; to madden. Had I but seen thy picture in this plight, It would have madded me. --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mad Mad, v. i. To be mad; to go mad; to rave. See Madding. [Archaic] --Chaucer. Festus said with great voice, Paul thou maddest. --Wyclif (Acts).

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mad Mad, n. [AS. ma?a; akin to D. & G. made, Goth. mapa, and prob. to E. moth.] (Zo["o]l.) An earthworm. [Written also made.]

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(madder, maddest) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. Someone who is mad has a mind that does not work in a normal way, with the result that their behaviour is very strange. She was afraid of going mad. = insane ADJ • madness He was driven to the brink of madness. N-UNCOUNT 2. You use mad to describe people or things that you think are very foolish. You'd be mad to work with him again... Isn't that a rather mad idea? = crazy ADJ [disapproval] • madness It is political madness. N-UNCOUNT 3. If you say that someone is mad, you mean that they are very angry. (INFORMAL) You're just mad at me because I don't want to go... ADJ: usu v-link ADJ, oft ADJ at/about n 4. If you are mad about or mad on something or someone, you like them very much indeed. (INFORMAL) She's not as mad about sport as I am... He's mad about you... He's mad on trains. ADJ: v-link ADJ about/on n • Mad is also a combining form. ...his football-mad son... He's not power-mad. COMB in ADJ 5. Mad behaviour is wild and uncontrolled. You only have an hour to complete the game so it's a mad dash against the clock... The audience went mad. ADJ • madly Down in the streets people were waving madly. ADV: ADV with v 6. If you say that someone or something drives you mad, you mean that you find them extremely annoying. (INFORMAL) There are certain things he does that drive me mad... This itching is driving me mad. PHRASE: V inflects 7. If you do something like mad, you do it very energetically or enthusiastically. (INFORMAL) He was weight training like mad. PHRASE: PHR after v 8. mad keen: see keen see also madly

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Insane, crazy, crazed, distracted, lunatic, delirious, deranged, demented, maniac, maniacal. 2. Furious, enraged, raging. 3. Angry, exasperated, provoked, incensed, enraged, wrathful, furious. 4. Infatuated, distracted, wild. 5. Frenzied, frantic, raving, distracted.

Moby Thesaurus

Dionysiac, a transient madness, abandoned, abnormal, absurd, accident-prone, acrimonious, affronted, amok, anarchic, anger, angered, angriness, angry, apish, ardent, ardently, asinine, avid, bacchic, balmy, bananas, barmy, batty, befooled, beguiled, bellowing, bereft of reason, berserk, besotted, blustering, blusterous, blustery, bonkers, brainless, brainsick, breakneck, browned-off, buffoonish, bughouse, bugs, careless, carried away, certifiable, chaotic, childish, choleric, cockeyed, corybantic, crackbrained, cracked, crackers, craze, crazed, crazy, credulous, cross, cuckoo, daffy, daft, dazed, delirious, deluded, dement, demented, demoniac, deprived of reason, derange, deranged, desperate, desperately, devil-may-care, disoriented, distract, distracted, distraught, dizzy, doting, dotty, drive insane, drive mad, dumb, eager, ecstatic, enrage, enraged, enragement, enraptured, enthusiastic, enthusiastically, exasperated, excitedly, extravagant, fallacious, fanatical, fantastic, fatuitous, fatuous, feral, ferocious, fervent, fervently, fervid, feverishly, fierce, flaky, flighty, fond, fool, foolhardy, foolheaded, foolish, frantic, frenetic, frenzied, frenziedly, frenzy, fuddled, fulminating, fuming, furious, furiously, fury, futile, gaga, goofy, grapes of wrath, gulled, haggard, hallucinated, harum-scarum, hasty, headlong, heat, heated, heedless, hellish, hog-wild, hooked, hotheaded, howling, hurried, hysterical, hysterically, idiotic, ill-advised, ill-considered, imbecile, immature, impetuous, imprudent, in a transport, in hysterics, inane, incense, incensed, indignant, indiscreet, inept, infatuated, infuriate, infuriated, infuriation, insane, insensate, intoxicated, invalid, irate, irateness, ire, ireful, irrational, irritated, keen, kooky, like crazy, like mad, like one possessed, livid, loco, loony, loopy, lunatic, madcap, madden, maddened, madding, madly, maenadic, make mad, maniac, maniacal, manic, maudlin, mazed, mental, mentally deficient, mentally ill, meshuggah, mindless, moon-struck, moronic, non compos, non compos mentis, nonrational, nonsensical, not all there, not right, nuts, nutty, odd, of unsound mind, off, offended, orgasmic, orgastic, orgiastic, outraged, overeager, overenthusiastic, overzealous, pandemoniac, passionate, pissed, pissed-off, possessed, potty, precipitant, precipitate, precipitous, preposterous, provoked, psycho, psychotic, puerile, queer, rabid, rage, raging, ramping, ranting, rash, ravening, raving, raving mad, ravished, reasonless, reckless, riled up, rip-roaring, roaring, round the bend, running mad, running wild, saeva indignatio, sappy, screwy, send mad, senseless, sentimental, shatter, sick, silly, slap-bang, slapdash, sophistic, sore, soreness, stark-mad, stark-raving mad, stark-staring mad, storming, stormy, strange, stupid, tempestuous, tetched, thoughtless, ticked off, touched, transported, troublous, tumultuous, turbulent, twisted, umbrage, unbalance, unbalanced, uncontrollable, unhinge, unhinged, unreasonable, unsane, unsettled, unsound, unwise, uproarious, vials of wrath, violent, violently, wacky, wandering, wanton, waxy, wet, wild, wild-eyed, wild-looking, wildly, witless, worked up, wrath, wrathful, wrathfulness, wrathy, wroth, wrought-up, zealous