Adjacent Words

Madness definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MAD'NESS, n. [from mad.] Distraction; a state of disordered reason or intellect, in which the patient raves or is furious.
There are degrees of madness as of folly.
1. Extreme folly; headstrong passion and rashness that act in opposition to reason; as the madness of a mob.
2. Wildness of passion; fury; rage; as the madness of despair.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: obsolete terms for legal insanity [syn: lunacy, madness, insaneness]
2: an acute viral disease of the nervous system of warm-blooded animals (usually transmitted by the bite of a rabid animal); rabies is fatal if the virus reaches the brain [syn: rabies, hydrophobia, lyssa, madness]
3: a feeling of intense anger; "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"; "his face turned red with rage" [syn: fury, rage, madness]
4: the quality of being rash and foolish; "trying to drive through a blizzard is the height of folly"; "adjusting to an insane society is total foolishness" [syn: folly, foolishness, craziness, madness]
5: unrestrained excitement or enthusiasm; "poetry is a sort of divine madness" [syn: madness, rabidity, rabidness]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 14th century 1. the quality or state of being mad: as a. rage b. insanity c. extreme folly d. ecstasy, enthusiasm 2. any of several ailments of animals marked by frenzied behavior; specifically rabies

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Madness Mad"ness, n. [From Mad, a.] 1. The condition of being mad; insanity; lunacy. 2. Frenzy; ungovernable rage; extreme folly. Syn: Insanity; distraction; derangement; craziness; lunacy; mania; frenzy; franticness; rage; aberration; alienation; monomania. See Insanity.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

see mad

Easton's Bible Dictionary

This word is used in its proper sense in Deut. 28:34, John 10:20, 1 Cor. 14:23. It also denotes a reckless state of mind arising from various causes, as over-study (Eccl. 1:17; 2:12), blind rage (Luke 6:11), or a depraved temper (Eccl. 7:25; 9:3; 2 Pet. 2:16). David feigned madness (1 Sam. 21:13) at Gath because he "was sore afraid of Achish."

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

mad'-nes.

See MAD, MADNESS.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Insanity, derangement, craziness, lunacy, distraction, mental aberration, mania. 2. Frenzy, fury, rage, delirium, franticness.

Moby Thesaurus

African lethargy, Asiatic cholera, Chagres fever, German measles, Haverhill fever, abandon, aberration, abnormality, acute articular rheumatism, ague, alienation, alkali disease, amebiasis, amebic dysentery, anthrax, asininity, bacillary dysentery, bastard measles, battiness, black death, black fever, blackwater fever, brain damage, brainlessness, brainsickness, breakbone fever, brucellosis, bubonic plague, buffoonery, cachectic fever, cerebral rheumatism, chicken pox, cholera, clouded mind, clownishness, cowpox, crackpottedness, crankiness, craze, craziness, daffiness, daftness, dandy fever, deer fly fever, delirium, dementedness, dementia, dengue, dengue fever, derangement, desipience, diphtheria, disorientation, distraction, dumdum fever, dysentery, eccentricity, ecstasy, elephantiasis, encephalitis lethargica, enteric fever, erysipelas, famine fever, fatuity, fatuousness, fire and fury, five-day fever, flu, folie, folly, foolery, foolheadedness, foolishness, frambesia, frenzy, frivolity, frivolousness, furor, furore, fury, futility, giddiness, glandular fever, goofiness, grippe, hansenosis, hepatitis, herpes, herpes simplex, herpes zoster, histoplasmosis, hookworm, hydrophobia, hysteria, idiocy, illogic, illogicality, illogicalness, imbecility, impracticality, inanity, ineptitude, infantile paralysis, infectious mononucleosis, inflammatory rheumatism, influenza, insaneness, insanity, intoxication, irrationality, jail fever, jungle rot, kala azar, kissing disease, lepra, leprosy, leptospirosis, loa loa, loaiasis, lockjaw, loss of mind, loss of reason, lunacy, malaria, malarial fever, mania, marsh fever, measles, meningitis, mental deficiency, mental derangement, mental disease, mental disorder, mental disturbance, mental illness, mental instability, mental sickness, milzbrand, mind overthrown, mindlessness, mindsickness, mumps, niaiserie, nonsense, nugacity, nuttiness, oddness, orgasm, orgy, ornithosis, osteomyelitis, paratyphoid fever, parotitis, parrot fever, passion, pertussis, pixilation, pneumonia, pointlessness, polio, poliomyelitis, polyarthritis rheumatism, ponos, possession, preposterousness, psittacosis, psychopathy, psychosis, queerness, rabbit fever, rabidness, rabies, rage, rapture, rat-bite fever, ravishment, reasonlessness, relapsing fever, rheumatic fever, rickettsialpox, ridiculousness, ringworm, rubella, rubeola, sappiness, scarlatina, scarlet fever, schistosomiasis, screwiness, senselessness, septic sore throat, shattered mind, shingles, sick mind, sickness, silliness, sleeping sickness, sleepy sickness, smallpox, snail fever, splenic fever, spotted fever, strangeness, strep throat, stupidity, swamp fever, tearing passion, tetanus, thoughtlessness, thrush, tinea, towering rage, transport, trench fever, trench mouth, triflingness, triviality, tuberculosis, tularemia, typhoid, typhoid fever, typhus, typhus fever, unbalance, unbalanced mind, undulant fever, unsaneness, unsound mind, unsoundness, unsoundness of mind, vaccinia, varicella, variola, venereal disease, viral dysentery, wackiness, weirdness, whooping cough, witlessness, yaws, yellow fever, yellow jack, zaniness, zanyism, zona, zoster