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A Writer's Dictionary:

mad Definition


Dictionary Home » Words Starting with M » maculation ... magnesium oxide » mad


mad
adj madder, maddest
    1. Mentally disturbed; insane.
      Thesaurus: insane, demented, deranged, psychotic, crazed, delirious, raving, unbalanced, unstable, daft, nuts (slang), bonkers (slang), bananas (slang), batty (slang), having bats in the belfry (slang), off one's rocker (slang), round the bend (slang); Antonym: rational, sane.
    2. Foolish or senseless; extravagantly carefree.
    (originally & especially US)
    3. colloq
      Very angry; furious.
      Thesaurus: incensed, furious, enraged, livid, wrathful, fuming, angry, irate.
      Form: mad at someone (often)
      Form: mad with someone
    4. colloq
      Extremely enthusiastic; fanatical; infatuated.
      Example: My boys are mad about cricket
      Example: she's football-mad
      Form: mad about something (usually)
      Form: mad on something
    5. Marked by extreme confusion, haste or excitement.
      Example: a mad dash for the door
      Thesaurus: distraught, frenetic, frantic, agitated; Antonym: calm, clear-headed.
    6. Frantic with grief, pain or another violent emotion or desire.
    7. Said of a dog, etc: infected with rabies.
Derivative: madly
    In a mad way.
      Thesaurus: irrationally, insanely, crazily, psychotically, deliriously, dementedly, nonsensically, rabidly.
    colloq
    Passionately.
      Thesaurus: wildly, furiously, fanatically, frantically, desperately, passionately, rashly, hastily, violently.
Derivative: madness
noun
    The state or quality of being mad
      Thesaurus: insanity, lunacy, derangement, delusion, craziness, aberration, raving.
Idiom: go mad
    To become insane or demented.
    colloq
    To become very angry.
Idiom: like mad
    colloq
    Frantically; very energetically.
      Example: waving like mad at the back of the crowd
Idiom: mad as a hatter
    Completely insane; crazy possibly from the fact that, in the manufacture of felt hats, hatters used nitrate of mercury, exposure to which caused mental and physical symptoms which were interpreted as madness.
Idiom: mad as a March hare
Idiom: mad keen
    colloq
    Extremely enthusiastic.
Etymology: 13c: from Anglo-Saxon gemæded, past participle of gemædan to madden.



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