madadj.

Brit.

/mad/, U.S.

/mæd/

Forms: Middle English maad, Middle English med, Middle English medd, Middle English medde, Middle English–1500s made, Middle English–1600s madd, Middle English–1600s madde, Middle English– mad; Scottish pre-1700 madd, pre-1700 madde, pre-1700 made, pre-1700 maid, pre-1700 1700s– mad.

Origin: A variant or alteration of another lexical item. Etymons: amad adj.; English gemǣd.

Etymology: Aphetic < either amad adj. or < Old English gemǣd (see amad adj.). Evidence suggesting limited continuation of the related Old English gemād is doubtful: see further discussion at amad adj.Senses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 are all first attested between the second half of the 13th cent. and the first half of the 14th cent.; the priority of the sense ‘rabid’ is probably accidental, whereas the existence of the earlier Middle English amad , and of Old English gemǣd , suggests that ‘insane’ was in fact the primary sense. The word wōd (wood adj., n.², and adv.) was commonly used for this in Old English and early Middle English but became rare outside northern regional use by the 16th cent., leaving mad as the usual word for ‘insane’. In a similar way, mad emerged, after the decline of wroth and other synonyms which had been common in Middle English, as the usual term for ‘feeling anger’ in many dialects in Great Britain (and later in North America), alongside standard English angry; use in this sense is frequently proscribed in usage guides from the late 18th cent. onwards.

1. Of an animal: abnormally aggressive; spec. (esp. of a dog) suffering from rabies, rabid.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > by nature > [adjective] > wild or vicious

wildc725

wrothOE

keenOE

ramagec1300

fell?c1335

furiousc1374

fierce1377

ramageousa1398

eagerc1405

savage1447

naughtyc1460

criminal1477

ill1480

shrewd1509

mankind1519

roidc1540

mad1565

horn-mad1579

fierceful1607

man-keen1607

indomite1617

fellish1638

ferocious1646

ferousa1652

ferinea1676

kwaai1827

skelm1827

c1275 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo.:Morton) 66 (note) Madde [c1230 Corpus Cambr. 36/9 Intrinsecus autem sunt lupi rapaces..monie..beoþ wedde wulues].

?a1450 in Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. (1923) 38 353 Þe devel ay folowed about..In liknesse of a bole grym..And as a mad dogge also.

1529 T. More Supplyc. Soulys i. f. x^v As mad not as marche hare, but as a madde dogge.

1565 T. Cooper Thesaurus at Furibundus Canis furibundus,..madde dogge. Taurus furibundus,..madde bull.

1579 W. Fulke Heskins Parl. Repealed in D. Heskins Ouerthrowne 463 Dogges after they had eaten the sacrament,..ranne madde.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Comedy of Errors (1623) v. i. 71 The venome clamors of a iealous woman, Poisons more deadly then a mad dogges tooth.

1629 R. M. Micrologia sig. A3 I shall not unfirly resemble the Painter, who being to figure forth the fury of a mad dogge, [etc.].

1702 Playbill 27 Apr. in 12th Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. MSS (1890) App. iii. 7 A great Mad Bull to be turned loose in the Game-place, with Fire-works all over him.

1766 O. Goldsmith Vicar of Wakefield I. xvii. 176 The dog, to gain some private ends, Went mad and bit the man.

1769 T. Pennant Brit. Zool. (new ed.) III. iv. 315 Fish thus affected the Thames fishermen call mad bleaks.

1800 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 4 58 Keep the dogs, or other animals, supposed mad, shut up safely in a convenient place for five or six weeks.

1846 C. Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) vi. 50 A thundering alarm of ‘Mad Bull!’ was raised.

1931 N. Coward Mad Dogs & Englishmen (song) 5 Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun.

1990 R. Blount First Hubby 53 I'm jus' a po' old falsely 'spected breaker and enterer, and you th'ow me in with a mad dog with his goober red!

2. Of a person, action, disposition, etc.: uncontrolled by reason or judgement; foolish, unwise. Subsequently only in stronger use (corresponding to the modern restricted application of sense 3a, from which it is now often indistinguishable): extravagantly or wildly foolish; ruinously imprudent.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > inattention > mental wandering > [adjective]

bemazed?c1225

madc1300

maskedc1300

marreda1375

astoniedc1386

adasedc1450

astonished1513

moping1566

bewandered1574

dizzy1579

westy1598

night-wildered1652

disconcerted1686

muzzy1723

flustered1743

bewildered1760

flurried1775

muddled1790

thought-bewildered1796

bedazzled1805

muggy1824

mused1842

moony1847

beflustered1864

bemused1880

snarled1881

bedazed1882

bemuddled1883

disoriented1957

disorientated1959

wifty1973

the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > weakness of intellect > madness, extreme folly > [adjective]

woodc900

madc1300

wild1515

hare-brained1548

idle1548

harish1552

frantic1561

hare-brain1566

lunatic1571

lunatical1599

datelessa1686

flaky1964

tonto1982

c1300 Body & Soul (Laud Misc. 108) (1889) 47 (MED) I þolede þe and [dude] as mad To be maister and i þi cnave.

c1400 (?c1380) Pearl 267 (MED) If þou schal lose Þy ioy for a gemme þat þe watz lef, Me þynk þe put in a mad porpose.

1509 A. Barclay Brant's Shyp of Folys (Pynson) f. lxxv^v Thou art blynde, and mad to set thy brayne All thynge to venge (by wrath) that doth mysfall.

a1540 R. Barnes in W. Tyndale et al. Wks. (1573) 349/1 Is not this a madde manner of prayer that men vse to our Lady?

1608 T. Middleton (title) A mad world, my masters.

a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It (1623) iii. ii. 392 I draue my Sutor from his mad humor of loue, to a liuing humor of madnes.

1743 J. Bulkeley & J. Cummins Voy. to South-seas Pref. 14 Our Attempt for Liberty in sailing..with such a number of People, stow'd in a Long Boat, has been censur'd as a mad Undertaking.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. v. 643 The chief justice..was not mad enough to risk a quarrel on such a subject.

1864 R. Browning Confessions in Dramatis Personæ 141 How sad and bad and mad it was—But then, how it was sweet!

1878 B. Taylor Prince Deukalion i. ii. 27 Was I mad, To fear, one moment, thou couldst ever die?

1933 ‘G. Ingram’ ‘Stir’ xvi. 254 You get the screws and squaddies to shoot at us! Why, you're—well mad, you are.

1991 She May 64 Her husband..thinks she must be mad to add years on in a place like Los Angeles.

a. Of a person: insane, crazy; mentally unbalanced or deranged; subject to delusions or hallucinations; (in later use esp.) psychotic.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > [adjective] > insanity or madness > affected with

woodc725

woodsekc890

giddyc1000

out of (by, from, of) wit or one's witc1000

witlessc1000

brainsickOE

amadc1225

lunaticc1290

madc1330

sickc1340

brain-wooda1375

out of one's minda1387

frenetica1398

fonda1400

formada1400

unwisea1400

brainc1400

unwholec1400

alienate?a1425

brainless1434

distract of one's wits1470

madfula1475

furious1475

distract1481

fro oneself1483

beside oneself1490

beside one's patience1490

dementa1500

red-wood?1507

extraught1509

misminded1509

peevish1523

bedlam-ripe1525

straughta1529

fanatic1533

bedlama1535

daft1540

unsounda1547

stark raving (also staring) mad1548

distraughted1572

insane1575

acrazeda1577

past oneself1576

frenzy1577

poll-mad1577

out of one's senses1580

maddeda1586

frenetical1588

distempered1593

distraught1597

crazed1599

diswitted1599

idle-headed1599

lymphatical1603

extract1608

madling1608

distracteda1616

informala1616

far gone1616

crazy1617

March mada1625

non compos mentis1628

brain-crazed1632

demented1632

crack-brained1634

arreptitiousa1641

dementate1640

dementated1650

brain-crackeda1652

insaniated1652

exsensed1654

bedlam-witteda1657

lymphatic1656

mad-like1679

dementative1685

non compos1699

beside one's gravity1716

hyte1720

lymphated1727

out of one's head1733

maddened1735

swivel-eyed1758

wrong1765

brainsickly1770

fatuous1773

derangedc1790

alienated1793

shake-brained1793

crack-headed1796

flighty1802

wowf1802

doitrified1808

phrenesiac1814

bedlamite1815

mad-braineda1822

fey1823

bedlamitish1824

skire1825

beside one's wits1827

as mad as a hatter1829

crazied1842

off one's head1842

bemadded1850

loco1852

off one's nut1858

off his chump1864

unsane1867

meshuga1868

non-sane1868

loony1872

bee-headed1879

off one's onion1881

off one's base1882

(to go) off one's dot1883

locoed1885

screwy1887

off one's rocker1890

balmy or barmy on (or in) the crumpet1891

meshuggener1892

nutty1892

buggy1893

bughouse1894

off one's pannikin1894

ratty1895

off one's trolley1896

batchy1898

twisted1900

batsc1901

batty1903

dippy1903

bugs1904

dingy1904

up the (also a) pole1904

nut1906

nuts1908

nutty as a fruitcake1911

bugged1920

potty1920

cuckoo1923

nutsy1923

puggled1923

blah1924

détraqué1925

doolally1925

off one's rocket1925

puggle1925

mental1927

phooey1927

crackers1928

squirrelly1928

over the edge1929

round the bend1929

lakes1934

ding-a-ling1935

wacky1935

screwball1936

dingbats1937

Asiatic1938

parlatic1941

troppo1941

up the creek1941

screwed-up1943

bonkers1945

psychological1952

out to lunch1955

starkers1956

off (one's) squiff1960

round the twist1960

yampy1963

out of (also off) one's bird1966

out of one's skull1967

whacked out1969

batshit1971

woo-woo1971

nutso1973

out of (one's) gourd1977

wacko1977

off one's meds1986

c1330 (?c1300) Amis & Amiloun (Auch.) (1937) 1983 (MED) What foly..can he sain? Is he madde of mode?

a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) i. 128 (MED) For certes such a maladie..myhte make a wisman madd.

a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) v. 496 And if..hir list noght to be gladd, He berth an hond that sche is madd.

Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 319 Madde, or wood: Amens, demens, furiosus.

1489 W. Caxton tr. C. de Pisan Bk. Fayttes of Armes iii. xx. Oiii Whyche duk or erle happeth..to wex madde, so that al alone as a fole he gothe renning by wodes and hedges.

1590 H. Swinburne Briefe Treat. Test. & Willes ii. f. 37 They did see him hisse like a goose or barke lyke a dogge, or play such other parts as madfolks vse to doo.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Comedy of Errors (1623) ii. ii. 11 Wast thou mad, That thus so madlie thou..didst answere me?

1665 S. Pepys Diary 25 Jan. (1972) VI. 21 He told me what a mad freaking fellow Sir Ellis Layton hath been and is—and once at Antwerp, was really mad.

1726 J. Swift Gulliver I. ii. viii. 149 Some of them upon hearing me talk so wildly thought I was mad.

1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1729 I. 28 If a man tells me that he sees this [sc. a ruffian with a drawn sword], and in consternation calls to me to look at it, I pronounce him to be mad.

1814 S. Smith in Edinb. Rev. Apr. 197 A mad Quaker belongs to a small and rich sect; and is, therefore, of greater importance than any other mad person of the same degree in life.

1829 S. Cooper Good's Study Med. (ed. 3) IV. 101 I felt, said he, it would again drive me mad if I did not relieve it.

1855 Ld. Tennyson Maud xxv. i, in Maud & Other Poems 90 And then to hear a dead man chatter Is enough to drive one mad.

1899 T. L. Stedman 20th Cent. Pract. XVIII. 623 The lower part of the frontal skin is drawn downwards and conceals the eyes, as in mad persons and lions.

1922 A. Conan Doyle Probl. Thor Bridge in Strand Mag. Mar. 231/2 She was like a mad woman—indeed, I think she was a mad woman, subtly mad with the deep power of deception which insane people may have.

1958 E. Dundy Dud Avocado iii. vi. 270 My first thought was that I had gone stark raving mad..and that I was now hallucinating in a looney bin.

1969 B. Rubens Elected Member vii. 81 His patient insistence that all were mad and only he was sane.

1981 M. West Clowns of God ii. 41 They would make Jean Marie Barette look like the maddest of mad mullahs, the craziest of all the prophets of doom.

1996 Time Out 31 July 92/4 The Gothic yet strangely gentle fantasy world inhabited by poor, mad Miss Havisham, nesting her broken heart amid the cobwebby remains of her wedding finery.

†b. Causing madness. Obsolete. rare.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > [adjective] > insanity or madness > causing

mad1567

madding1592

extractinga1616

insanea1616

dementating1652

maddening1822

dementing1861

pathogenic1909

1567 J. Maplet Greene Forest f. 41^v There is another kind of the self same name which is called mad Dwale. Which being drunken sheweth wonders by a certain false shewe of imagination.

1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 909 There is also another kinde of pernicious honey made, which from the madness that it causeth, is termed Mad-honey.

1676 J. Dryden Aureng-Zebe iv. 57 Pow'r like new Wine, does your weak Brain surprise, And its mad fumes, in hot discourses, rise.

c. Of wind, a storm, the sea: wild, violent.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > bad weather > [adjective] > stormy > violent or raging

sharp1377

sticklec1450

angry1557

storming1557

furious1585

mad1594

rageful1595

angered1603

main1627

tearing1633

irrefrenary1658

1594 W. Shakespeare Titus Andronicus iii. i. 221 If the winds rage, doth not the sea waxe mad .

1628 World Encompassed by Sir F. Drake 42 The impossibility to come to anchor; the want of opportunitie to spread any sayle; the most mad seas; the lee shores; the dangerous rocks.

1850 E. B. Browning Poet's Vow i. xiii, in Poems I. 256 Mad winds, that howling go From east to west.

1863 T. Woolner My Beautiful Lady 50 Here the mad gale had rioted and thrown Far drifts of snowy petals.

1897 J. Conrad Nigger of ‘Narcissus’ iii. 49 Never before had the gale seemed to us more furious, the sea more mad.

1982 Dict. Newfoundland Eng. 318/2 There's a mad sea on.

2000 Spectator 17 June 10/2 The eastern end of this island is..relatively sheltered from the mad westerly gales which march across the archipelago.

d. Of behaviour, speech, etc.: that resembles that of an insane person; suggestive or symptomatic of insanity.

ΚΠ

1766 A. Nicol Poems Several Subj. 198 Sometimes mad laughter drives him into frets. Sometimes he's pleas'd, sometimes in anger frowns.

1897 J. Davidson New Ballads 39 They found him conjuring chaos with mad words.

1954 W. Lewis Self Condemned vi. 71 René actually kicked Victor sharply on the shins, as he threw a foot out in a spasm of mad mirth.

1979 J. Wainwright Brainwash xli. 177 Mad laughter seemed to tremble on his lips and his eyes widened with momentary mania.

†4. Of a person: stupefied with astonishment, fear, or suffering; dazed. Obsolete.

ΚΠ

c1330 Seven Sages (Auch.) (1933) 771 (MED) Þe felle bor bicam to come; Þe herde..was of drad; He dorst nowt fle, he was so mad.

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 10851 Sant gabriel..said her till, ‘Maria, quarfor es þou madd? Es þe na nede to be radd?’

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 24886 (MED) All þaa þat in þat ferr cost fard War medd quen þai him [sc. the angel] sagh and herd.

c1480 (a1400) St. Theodora 129 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) II. 103 Þu art nov pensiwe & mad, & wont wes to be blith & glad.

a1513 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) I. 87 Gife I be sorrowfull and sad, Than will thay say that I am mad.

c1540 (?a1400) Gest Historiale Destr. Troy 11542 Þus in pouert am I pyght..Þat makes me full mad & mournes in my hert.

1567 Compend. Bk. Godly Songs (rev. ed.) f. 105^v Of lait I saw thir lymmaris stand, Lyke mad men at mischeif.

a. Of a person: carried away by or filled with enthusiasm or desire; wildly excited; infatuated. With about, after, for, †of, on (chiefly British), over, †upon, with.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > zeal or enthusiasm > [adjective] > extremely

mada1350

wild1811

wilda1817

crazy1826

besmitten1873

schwärmerisch1894

bugs1908

buggy1913

born-again1928

nutso1973

the mind > emotion > violent emotion > [adjective] > affected by violent emotion

woodc900

reighOE

mada1350

furiousc1374

raginga1425

savagea1450

rageous1486

frenetic?c1550

frantic1561

frenetical1588

impotent1596

transported1600

violent1601

turbulent1609

dementing1729

enfrenzied1823

wild1868

haywire1934

wigged-out1977

the mind > emotion > excitement > extravagant or rapturous excitement > [adjective] > affected by

mada1350

inebriate1497

rapt1539

attoxicated1604

inebriated1610

intoxicated1620

exalted1712

slap-happy1936

slappy1937

happy-slappy1943

buzzed1952

stoned1952

the mind > emotion > love > liking or favourable regard > [adjective] > enthusiastic (about or for)

servile1581

enamorate1599

mad1744

bugs1908

high1933

a1350 in G. L. Brook Harley Lyrics (1968) 34 (MED) Wiþ longyng y am lad, on molde y waxe mad.

?a1400 (a1338) R. Mannyng Chron. (Petyt) (1996) i. 7494 Oute of messure was he glad, ffor of [a1450 Lamb. opon] þat maidin he wex alle mad.

1587 T. Underdowne tr. Heliodorus Æthiop. Hist. i. f. 5^v For if any woman ever knew how to make a man madde of her, shee was better skilled in that Arte, then any man woulde thinke.

1611 Bible (King James) Jer. l. 38 It is the land of grauen images, and they are madde vpon their idoles.

a1616 W. Shakespeare All's Well that ends Well (1623) v. iii. 263 He loued her, for indeede he was madde for her.

1631 B. Jonson Bartholmew Fayre i. iv. 9 in Wks. II I thought he would ha' runne madde o' the blacke boy in Bucklers-bury.

1678 T. Rymer Trag. Last Age 7 I cannot be perswaded that the people are so very mad of Acorns, but that they could be well content to eat the Bread of civil persons.

1690 W. Walker Idiomatologia Anglo-Lat. (ed. 5) 283/1 He began to be mad on her.

1692 J. Dryden Cleomenes Pref. sig. A4 The World is running mad after Farce, the Extremitie of bad Poetry.

1700 J. Dryden tr. Ovid Cinyras & Myrrha in Fables 178 Mad with Desire, she ruminates her Sin, And wishes all her Wishes o'er again.

1719 D. Defoe Farther Adventures Robinson Crusoe 228 They were mad upon their Journey.

1744 H. Walpole Let. 29 May in Corr. with H. Mann (1955) II. 452 We are now mad about tar-water.

1814 J. Austen Mansfield Park III. xii. 228 My friend Mrs. Fraser is mad for such a house.

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. ii. 175 The people were mad with loyal enthusiasm.

1868 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest I. vii. 42 When all the world seemed mad after monks.

1882 Ld. Tennyson Charge Heavy Brigade iii, in Macmillan's Mag. Mar. 338 O mad for the charge and the battle were we.

1913 D. H. Lawrence Sons & Lovers iv. 80 Everybody was mad with excitement.

1925 S. O'Casey Juno & Paycock iii, in Two Plays 79 The way he was always bringin' you to dances, I thought he was mad afther you.

1966 Daily Mail 7 Nov. 4/6 ‘Not bad,’ he reported. ‘Wasn't mad about the parsley sauce, but the snails were great.’

1978 C. James Flying Visits (1984) 67 Mad with enthusiasm, some of the more adventurous spirits even dared to immerse themselves in the sea.

1983 S. Naipaul Hot Country viii. 114 On the Portobello Road they'd go mad over that stuff.

1984 E. Jong Parachutes & Kisses xvii. 282 They were mad for each other.

1987 S. Eldred-Grigg Oracles & Miracles i. 15 Jock and Eddie was mad on motor-bike racing.

b. Chiefly British. With infinitive: wildly desirous (to do something).

ΘΚΠ

the mind > will > wish or inclination > desire > vehement or passionate desire > [adjective] > vehemently or passionately desirous

wildc725

ardentc1374

fierce1377

flagrant?1521

zealous1526

passionatea1530

heady1543

concupiscentious1555

passionative1593

luxurious1614

mada1627

concupitive1651

sultry1671

hot-tempered1673

ardurousa1770

wild1811

nympholeptic1818

concupiscenta1834

a1627 T. Middleton Women beware Women iii. ii, in 2 New Playes (1657) 156 This makes me madder to enjoy him now.

1729 J. Swift Jrnl. Dublin Lady 5 All mad to speak, and none to hearken.

1794 E. Gunning Packet IV. ix. 166 Every honest cottager was so mad to pursue it after his own mode, that [etc.].

1814 R. Southey Roderick i. 1 Mad to wreak His vengeance for his violated child On Roderick's head.

1857 C. Kingsley Two Years Ago II. v. 200 I cannot sit here quietly, listening to the war-news. It makes me mad to be up and doing.

1923 H. L. Mencken Let. 22 Aug. in H. L. Mencken & S. Haardt Mencken & Sara (1987) 89 I am mad to do something on several southern themes of a social cast.

1987 ‘B. Vine’ Fatal Inversion 76 It was curiously sexual this feeling, exactly the way he had once or twice felt with a girl he was mad to make love to.

c. Frequently used as the second element in adverbial noun compounds, as music-mad, poetry-mad, sex-mad, etc.

ΚΠ

a1750 L. Pilkington Mem. (1754) III. 59 I know you were once Bermudas mad; now I'll give you some of that Country Cheer; open that Drawer and reach me a flat Bottle you'll find there.

1753 J. Armstrong Taste 7 Some have run Maro- and some Milton-mad.

1760 H. Mann Let. 6 Dec. in H. Walpole Corr. (1960) XXI. 462 It is not the famous countess, though she too is still fan-mad, but her sister.

1789 C. Burney Gen. Hist. Music (ed. 2) I. Pref. p. xi A great genius, music-mad.

1802 S. T. Coleridge Let. 16 Nov. (1956) II. 468 The whole Kingdom is getting Ginger-mad.

1825 H. Wilson Mem. I. 41 One of her new admirers, who, being flute-mad, and a beautiful flute player, was always ready.

1847 T. H. Huxley Let. 24 Jan. in L. Huxley Life & Lett. T. H. Huxley (1900) I. 31 Lest you should imagine me scenery mad I will spare you any description.

1851 T. A. Buckley tr. Homer Iliad 249 Accursed Paris..woman-mad, seducer.

1928 R. Macaulay Keeping up Appearances vii. 62 If a woman went on that way about men you'd call her man-mad.

1943 E. M. Almedingen Frossia ii. 58 Look at all this promiscuity... They have all gone sex-mad.

1946 K. Tennant Lost Haven (1947) Prol. 8 All the family were horse-mad.

1974 ‘P. B. Yuill’ Bornless Keeper xiii. 129 Perhaps you can save her from a sex-mad rabbit and win her undying love.

1992 S. Sontag Volcano Lover i. ii. 25 Being volcano-mad was madder than being picture-mad.

6. (a) Of a person: beside oneself with anger; moved to uncontrollable rage; furious. (b) Angry, irate, cross. Also, in weakened sense: annoyed, exasperated (with †against, at, with, etc.). Now colloquial (chiefly North American) and British regional.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > anger > [adjective]

irrec825

gramec893

wemodc897

wrothc950

bolghenc1000

gramelyc1000

hotOE

on fireOE

brathc1175

moodyc1175

to-bollenc1175

wrethfulc1175

wraw?c1225

agrameda1300

wrathfula1300

agremedc1300

hastivec1300

irousa1340

wretheda1340

aniredc1350

felonc1374

angryc1380

upreareda1382

jealous1382

crousea1400

grieveda1400

irefula1400

mada1400

teena1400

wraweda1400

wretthy14..

angryc1405

errevousa1420

wrothy1422

angereda1425

passionatec1425

fumous1430

tangylc1440

heavy1452

fire angry1490

wrothsomea1529

angerful?1533

wrothful?1534

wrath1535

provoked1538

warm1547

vibrant1575

chauffe1582

fuming1582

enfeloned1596

incensed1597

choleric1598

inflameda1600

raiseda1600

exasperate1601

angried1609

exasperated1611

dispassionate1635

bristlinga1639

peltish1648

sultry1671

on (also upon) the high ropes (also rope)1672

nangry1681

ugly1687

sorea1694

glimflashy1699

enraged1732

spunky1809

cholerous1822

kwaai1827

wrathy1828

angersome1834

outraged1836

irate1838

vex1843

raring1845

waxy1853

stiff1856

scotty1867

bristly1872

hot under the collar1879

black angry1894

spitfire1894

passionful1901

ignorant1913

hairy1914

snaky1919

steamed1923

uptight1934

broigus1937

lemony1941

ripped1941

pissed1943

crooked1945

teed off1955

ticked off1959

ripe1966

torqued1967

bummed1970

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 17595 For-þi þaa iuus war full medd, þair sandes come again vnspedd.

?a1400 (a1338) R. Mannyng Chron. (Petyt) (1996) i. 606 Þis lady Venus was alle glad; þe toþer were for wrath mad.

c1425 (?a1400) Arthur (Longleat 55) 234 Whan þis lettre was open & rad, Þe Bretons & all men were mad And wolde þe messager scle.

1539 Bible (Great) Psalms cii. 8 They that are mad vpon me, are sworne together agaynst me [similarly, 1611; the Hebrew word literally means ‘insane’].

1577 M. Hanmer tr. Bp. Eusebius in Aunc. Eccl. Hist. v. i. 76 They which for familiaritie sake vsed moderation before, nowe were exceadingly moued and madd with vs.

a1604 M. Hanmer Chron. Ireland 125 in J. Ware Two Hist. Ireland (1633) Roderic was mad, and in his rage, caused his pledges head..to be cut off.

1611 Bible (King James) Acts xxvi. 11 And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them euen vnto strange cities.

1622 J. Mabbe tr. M. Alemán Rogue ii. 155 Whereat the merchant was so mad, and so transported with passion, that he knew not what to say.

1706 tr. J. B. Morvan de Bellegarde Refl. upon Ridicule 358 You are mad to hear other's Works commended.

?1706 E. Hickeringill Priest-craft: 2nd Pt. viii. 77 That makes them so mad at me, when I touch the Craft by which they get their Wealth.

1766 D. Garrick Neck or Nothing i. ii. 15 He was damn'd mad, that he cou'd not be at the wedding.

1791 J. Learmont Poems Pastoral 160 At length the Outlers grew sae mad Against ilk Inler purse-proud blade.

1806 Simple Narr. II. 9 I'll pump out of her how she got the book;—how deuced mad she will be.

1847 F. Marryat Children of New Forest I. vii. 124 He thought..you would be so mad at the idea of this injustice.

1867 A. Trollope Last Chron. Barset II. xliv. 3 I am sometimes so mad with myself when I think over it all,—that I should like to blow my brains out.

1887 F. Francis Saddle & Mocassin 111 The more he studied it [sc. the bill] the madder he got.

1902 W. James Varieties Relig. Experience xi. 264 He can't ‘get mad’ at any of his alternatives; and the career of a man beset by such an all-round amiability is hopeless.

1925 E. Wallace King by Night viii. 32 Don't get fresh with that girl of mine... You just get mad at her.

1939 J. Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath 260 Goin' aroun' stirrin' up trouble. Gettin' folks mad.

1956 M. Duggan in C. K. Stead N.Z. Short Stories (1966) 2nd Ser. 90 Are you mad at me? Simpson asked.

1973 Black World June 57/1 Gloria mad at me three days now.

1992 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Feb. 167/1 He has hardly any friends and the ones he has beat him up because they get mad with him.

a. Of a person: lacking in restraint; (wildly) unconventional in demeanour or conduct; marked by irresponsible gaiety; violently exuberant, outrageous, chaotic. Now frequently of an action, disposition, etc.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > behaviour > other specific behaviour > [adjective] > extravagant

mada1470

wild1515

extravagant1598

throughother1813

a1470 T. Malory Morte Darthur (Winch. Coll. 13) (1990) II. 693 Ye shall hyre the myrryeste knyght that ever ye spake wythall, and the maddyst talker.

1568 (a1500) Colkelbie Sow Prol. l. 50 in W. T. Ritchie Bannatyne MS (1930) IV. 281 Pardoun the fulich face of this mad metir.

1590 Tarltons Newes out of Purgatorie 2 One of those Familiares Lares..as Hob Thrust, Robin Goodfellow and such like spirites..famozed in every olde wives Chronicle for their mad merrye prankes.

1598 J. Marston Scourge of Villanie vii. F1^v Why how now currish mad Athenian?

c1600 Return: 1st Pt. i. i, in Three Parnassus Plays (1949) 148 Thou seems a mad greeke, & I haue loude such ladds of metall as thou seems to be from mine infancie.

1605 W. Camden Remaines ii. 42 A mery mad maker as they call [poets] now, was he, which..made this for Iohn Calf.

1611 A. Whitaker Let. in A. Brown Genesis U.S. (1890) I. 498 As our men passed by one of their townes, there yssued out on the shoare a mad crewe dauncing like Anticks, or our Morris dancers.

1635 T. Heywood Philocothonista 44 To title a drunkard by, wee..strive to character him in a more mincing and modest phrase; as thus:—Hee is a good fellow, or A boone Companion, A mad Greeke, A true Trojan.

1655 Earl of Norwich Let. 12 June in E. Nicholas Papers (1892) II. 338 You will heare mad work shortly, for the Jesuit is at worke.

a1715 Bp. G. Burnet Hist. Own Time (1724) I. 244 He..was engaged in a mad-ramble after pleasure, and minded no business.

1732 G. Berkeley Alciphron I. ii. x. 93 The mad sallies of Intemperance and Debauchery.

1777 F. Burney Jrnl. 7 Apr. in Early Jrnls. & Lett. (1990) II. 244 The sweet little thing was quite in mad spirits.

1785 W. Cowper Task iv. 163 Drink, and be mad then. 'Tis your country bids. Gloriously drunk obey th' important call.

1862 G. Meredith Marian iii, in Mod. Love 144 She is steadfast as a star, And yet the maddest maiden.

1873 ‘Ouida’ Pascarèl I. 69 They would play me all sorts of sweet little mad canzoni.

1883 Cent. Mag. Sept. 788/1 That mad whirlwind of shameless and senseless gayety.

1914 E. R. Burroughs Tarzan of Apes vii. 86 Tarzan..is, doubtless, the only human being who ever joined in the fierce, mad, intoxicating revel of the Dum-Dum.

1932 New Yorker 23 July 12/2 It is not your idea..of a mad night on pleasure-crazed Broadway.

1996 J. T. Hospital Oyster (1997) 159 The wild mad funnel of laughter that whooshed us along.

b. Characterizing a temporary state of fear, panic, etc.: frenetic, unrestrained, extreme.

ΚΠ

1834 T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus ii. iii, in Fraser's Mag. Feb. 185/1 A little dog, in mad terror, was rushing past; for some human imps had tied a tin kettle to its tail; thus did the agonised creature loud-jingling career through the whole length of the Burough [sic].

1894 R. Kipling Jungle Bk. 158 The mad rush and blaze and hullaballoo of the last night's drive, when the elephants..flung themselves at the heavy posts only to be driven back by yells and flaring torches and volleys of blank cartridge.

1902 J. Conrad Heart of Darkness in Youth 62 Mad terror had scattered them, men, women, and children, through the bush, and they had never returned.

1988 Motoring News 9 Nov. 14/3 We..survived a mad panic when an unnamed person hadn't tightened a front wheel nut up and the wheel came off!

1998 Independent 27 Mar. 9 (heading) Scilly islanders in mad rush to grab ship's cargo.

c. slang (originally U.S. in African-American usage). Used as a general term of approbation: (a) remarkable, appealing, exciting, wild; excellent, cool; (b) (in later use, as modifier, with stronger implications of extremity or abundance): unrestrained, total; copious, profuse; much.Originally associated with U.S. jazz music, the term enjoyed a revival in Britain and the United States in the 1990s, esp. among participants in the dance music and rave culture of the 1990s.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > reputation > state of being noteworthy or remarkable > [adjective]

specialc1325

notablec1390

oddc1400

notary1421

insignec1465

rial1487

noteworthy1552

signal1591

remarkable1593

of note1596

memorated1631

distinguishable1720

nameable1780

markworthy1799

mad1941

pipperoo1945

ring-a-ding1960

pass-remarkable1974

the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > high or intense degree > [adjective] > very great or extreme > presenting characteristic in the utmost degree

extreme1597

mad1941

1941 H. A. Smith Low Man on Totem Pole ix. 111 The best of all is the big, mad, red-hot, out-of-this-world date.

1944 D. Burley Orig. Handbk. Harlem Jive 15 That's mad, ole man; so mad it's glad.

1957 J. Kerouac On the Road ii. vii. 154 We spent a mad day in downtown New Orleans.

1970 C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 79 Mad, great, exciting.

1991 Source Dec. 60/2 Dancehall specialists Steely & Clevie remix the track and add mad bass for a heavy rockers edge.

1993 B. Cross It's not about Salary 281 There was no black or white thing, if you was dope, you was dope..writers, rappers breakdancers, if you was white and you was dope you could get mad respect.

1997 Dance & Arts Sept. 6/2 Can you imagine a Hip Hop concert on a duty-ass field with nothing but peeps on blankets, mad food, three stages, circus performances, [etc.].

8. Fervent with poetic or divine inspiration. Now literary.

ΚΠ

1601 B. Jonson Every Man in his Humor ii. iii. sig. E2v I shal loue Apollo, & the mad Thespian girles the better.

1603 T. Dekker 1603: Wonderfull Yeare Aiv Let Homer, Hesiod, Euripides, and some other mad Greekes with a band of Latines, lye like musket-shot in their way, when these Gothes and Getes, [sc. worthless rhymesters] set vpon you in your paper fortifications.

1687 J. Dryden Hind & Panther iii. 100 He found a leaf inscrib'd with sacred rime, Whose antique characters did well denote The Sibyl's hand of the Cumæan Grott: The mad Divineress had plainly writ, A time shou'd come.

1850 G. Soane Zarah i. ii. 15 Zarah has got into one of her wild freaks to-day, and talks more like a mad poet than a creature of frock and petticoats.

1993 R. Walser Running with Devil 165 Lead singer Axl Rose is a shaman, reviving the mad frenzy of Dionysus, Shiva, and the Romantic poets.

9. colloquial. [After Compounds 2a.] Of an animal, esp. a cow: suffering from spongiform encephalopathy.

ΚΠ

1990 Sun 22 May 3/2 He put a sign in his window saying: ‘The only mad cow in this shop is my wife.’..Cocky Colin, 42, thought up the slogan to dispel customers' fears over BSE disease in cows.

1991 N.Y. Times 8 Oct. c. 1/4 One of the quirkiest mysteries of modern medicine—involving mad cows, stumbling sheep and dwarfs—will be one step closer to solution if a heterodox new theory proves true.

1996 New Statesman 26 July 7/1 Since no conscientious mother can afford to ignore the mad sheep scare, I begin my day with a root through the fridge.

Phrases

P1. like mad: (literally) in the manner of one who is mad; (hence) furiously, with excessive violence or enthusiasm; now often (colloquial) in weakened sense, as an intensifier: greatly, to a high degree. Also †like any mad, †for mad.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > manner of action > violent action or operation > violently [phrase] > with excessive violence or enthusiasm

for mada1375

like mada1375

like a bandit1943

the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > violent behaviour > [phrase] > with fierce or furious violence

as or like woodc1220

for woodc1275

wood1297

for mada1375

like mada1375

the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > high or intense degree > greatly or very much [phrase] > extremely

like mada1375

with a mischief1538

(as) — as anything1542

with a vengeance1568

with a siserary1607

(to be pleased) to a feathera1616

in (the) extremea1616

with the vengeance1693

to a degree1740

like hell1776

like the devil1791

like winky1830

like billy-o1885

(like) seven shades of ——1919

like a bandit1943

on wheels1943

a1375 (c1350) William of Palerne (1867) 1761 Alisaundrine..mourned neiȝh for mad for meliors hire ladi.

c1440 (a1400) Awntyrs Arthure (Thornton) 110 It marrede, it mournede, it moyssede for made.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement f. cc.lii^v/2 I go madde I go vp and downe lyke a madde body, je cours les rues.]

1567 G. Turberville Epitaphes, Epigrams f. 105 He sports to outward sight, but inward chafes like mad.

1653 Mercurius Democritus No. 51. 393 An unlucky Crack the other day crying Coals through the streets at 10d. the Bushell, the poor People flocking about him like mad.

1663 S. Pepys Diary 13 June (1971) IV. 182 Thence by coach with a mad coachman that drove like mad.

1732 H. Fielding Covent-Garden Trag. ii. xii. 30 My reeling Head! which akes like any mad.

1741 S. Richardson Pamela IV. xvii. 118 Several Harlequins, and other ludicrous Forms, that jump'd and ran about like mad.

1745 C. J. Hamilton Let. in Academy (1893) 18 Nov. 440/3 They were Shooting at y^e Standards Like Mad.

1824 Countess Granville Lett. (1894) I. 262 We are writing like mad for the post.

1893 W. Forbes-Mitchell Reminisc. Great Mutiny 101 We..heard our fellows cheering like mad.

1934 J. B. Priestley Eng. Journey iii. 55 They wanted Old Polly to dance, but she wouldn't..until they'd gone, and then she danced like mad.

1965 New Statesman 14 May 753/1 Do Royal tours really matter? They matter like mad to the British embassy staff in the country concerned.

1990 Sunday Express Mag. 21 Oct. 20/2 Fear is nothing compared with the discomfort...‘Your back aches like mad.’

P2. Proverbial phrases.

†a. as mad as Ajax Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > anger > irritation > [adjective]

annoyedc1330

crabbedc1480

provoked1538

chafing1539

nettledc1576

chafed1582

irritated1595

as mad as Ajax1598

aggravated1611

enchafeda1616

irritate1626

on or upon the fret1679

as mad as a wet hen1823

as mad as a meat axe1855

scotty1867

hacked1892

raggy1900

ratty1909

pipped1914

fucked-off1923

rubbed1927

eggy1935

broigus1937

salty1938

pissed1943

peed off1948

1598 W. Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost iv. iii. 6 By the Lord this Loue is as madd as Aiax, it kills Sheepe.

1607 G. Chapman Bussy D'Ambois iii. 40 Murther market folkes, quarrell with sheepe, And runne as mad as Aiax.

1732 T. Fuller Gnomologia 140 Love is as mad as Ajax; it kills Sheep, so it kills me.

b. as mad as a brush (see brush n.² Additions).

†c. as mad as a buck Obsolete.

ΚΠ

a1616 W. Shakespeare Comedy of Errors (1623) iii. i. 73 It would make a man mad as a Bucke to be so bought and sold.

†d. as mad as a goose Obsolete.

ΚΠ

c1450 Alphabet of Tales (1904) I. 19 (MED) Þer fell a swyngyllyng in his hede þat he wex fonde with, & mad as a guse.

e. as mad as a (March) hare (see hare n. 1b, March n.² Compounds 2).

ΚΠ

a1516 H. Medwall Godely Interlude Fulgens sig. Gii Ye by my trowth as made as an hare.

1529 T. More Supplyc. Soulys i. f. x^v As mad not as marche hare, but as a madde dogge.

1786 R. Burns Poems & Songs (1968) I. 63 It pits me ay as mad's a hare.

1902 R. H. Barbour Behind Line xiii. 131 ‘Sandy’ saw me grinning at him in class yesterday and got as mad as a March hare.

1974 W. Foley Child in Forest 56 Then, mad as a bunch of March hares, yelling and hooting at the top of our voices, we rushed as fast as our legs would carry us.

f. as mad as a hatter [Origin uncertain. Perhaps with allusion to the effects of mercury poisoning formerly suffered by hat-makers as a result of the use of mercurous nitrate in the manufacture of felt hats. Compare later hatters' shakes n. at hatter n.² Compounds.]

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > [adjective] > insanity or madness > affected with

woodc725

woodsekc890

giddyc1000

out of (by, from, of) wit or one's witc1000

witlessc1000

brainsickOE

amadc1225

lunaticc1290

madc1330

sickc1340

brain-wooda1375

out of one's minda1387

frenetica1398

fonda1400

formada1400

unwisea1400

brainc1400

unwholec1400

alienate?a1425

brainless1434

distract of one's wits1470

madfula1475

furious1475

distract1481

fro oneself1483

beside oneself1490

beside one's patience1490

dementa1500

red-wood?1507

extraught1509

misminded1509

peevish1523

bedlam-ripe1525

straughta1529

fanatic1533

bedlama1535

daft1540

unsounda1547

stark raving (also staring) mad1548

distraughted1572

insane1575

acrazeda1577

past oneself1576

frenzy1577

poll-mad1577

out of one's senses1580

maddeda1586

frenetical1588

distempered1593

distraught1597

crazed1599

diswitted1599

idle-headed1599

lymphatical1603

extract1608

madling1608

distracteda1616

informala1616

far gone1616

crazy1617

March mada1625

non compos mentis1628

brain-crazed1632

demented1632

crack-brained1634

arreptitiousa1641

dementate1640

dementated1650

brain-crackeda1652

insaniated1652

exsensed1654

bedlam-witteda1657

lymphatic1656

mad-like1679

dementative1685

non compos1699

beside one's gravity1716

hyte1720

lymphated1727

out of one's head1733

maddened1735

swivel-eyed1758

wrong1765

brainsickly1770

fatuous1773

derangedc1790

alienated1793

shake-brained1793

crack-headed1796

flighty1802

wowf1802

doitrified1808

phrenesiac1814

bedlamite1815

mad-braineda1822

fey1823

bedlamitish1824

skire1825

beside one's wits1827

as mad as a hatter1829

crazied1842

off one's head1842

bemadded1850

loco1852

off one's nut1858

off his chump1864

unsane1867

meshuga1868

non-sane1868

loony1872

bee-headed1879

off one's onion1881

off one's base1882

(to go) off one's dot1883

locoed1885

screwy1887

off one's rocker1890

balmy or barmy on (or in) the crumpet1891

meshuggener1892

nutty1892

buggy1893

bughouse1894

off one's pannikin1894

ratty1895

off one's trolley1896

batchy1898

twisted1900

batsc1901

batty1903

dippy1903

bugs1904

dingy1904

up the (also a) pole1904

nut1906

nuts1908

nutty as a fruitcake1911

bugged1920

potty1920

cuckoo1923

nutsy1923

puggled1923

blah1924

détraqué1925

doolally1925

off one's rocket1925

puggle1925

mental1927

phooey1927

crackers1928

squirrelly1928

over the edge1929

round the bend1929

lakes1934

ding-a-ling1935

wacky1935

screwball1936

dingbats1937

Asiatic1938

parlatic1941

troppo1941

up the creek1941

screwed-up1943

bonkers1945

psychological1952

out to lunch1955

starkers1956

off (one's) squiff1960

round the twist1960

yampy1963

out of (also off) one's bird1966

out of one's skull1967

whacked out1969

batshit1971

woo-woo1971

nutso1973

out of (one's) gourd1977

wacko1977

off one's meds1986

1829 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. June 792 Tickler (aside to Shepherd.) He's raving. Shepherd (to Tickler.) Dementit. [sic] Odoherty (to both.) Mad as a hatter. Hand me a segar.

1837–40 T. C. Haliburton Clockmaker (1862) 109 Sister Sall..walked out of the room, as mad as a hatter.

1849 W. M. Thackeray Pendennis (1850) I. x. 92 We were..chaffing Derby Oaks—until he was as mad as a hatter.

1909 E. Pound Personae 20 Mad as a hatter but surely no Myope.

1956 M. Dickens Angel in Corner xi. 241 You probably think I'm as mad as a hatter.

g. as mad as a hornet North American.

ΚΠ

1848 Tioga (Wellsboro, Pa.) Eagle 12 Jan. 1/4 While old Darling, who was mad as a hornet, was gwine to have Doolittle arrested for niggar stealin, right off.

1919 H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. 80 In the familiar simile, as mad as a hornet, it [sc. the word mad] is used in the American sense.

1927 Amer. Speech 2 360 He was as mad as a hornet when he heard how the election went.

†h. as mad as May butter

ΚΠ

a1625 J. Fletcher Noble Gentleman i. ii, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Dd3/2 Monsieur Shattillion's mad... Mad as May-butter, And which is more, mad for a wench.

i. as mad as a meat axe (chiefly Australian and New Zealand).

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > anger > irritation > [adjective]

annoyedc1330

crabbedc1480

provoked1538

chafing1539

nettledc1576

chafed1582

irritated1595

as mad as Ajax1598

aggravated1611

enchafeda1616

irritate1626

on or upon the fret1679

as mad as a wet hen1823

as mad as a meat axe1855

scotty1867

hacked1892

raggy1900

ratty1909

pipped1914

fucked-off1923

rubbed1927

eggy1935

broigus1937

salty1938

pissed1943

peed off1948

1855 T. C. Haliburton Nature & Human Nature I. iii. 85 I feel as mad as a meat axe.

1946 J. Fountain in Coast to Coast 1945 252 The cow's mad—mad as a meat axe!

1970 D. M. Davin Not here, not Now v. iii. 263 She's mad as a meataxe anyway about the whole idea.

j. as mad as a (cut) snake Australian.

ΚΠ

1917 A. L. Brewer 'Gator's Euchre 29 When a new-chum gets lost, why..does he lose his head?.. They run as mad as snakes.

1932 ‘W. Hatfield’ Ginger Murdoch 30 ‘But you're mad!’ said Mick, ‘mad as a cut snake!’

1951 S. Mackenzie Dead Men Rising 203 ‘Mad as a cut snake,’ Johnson said admiringly, ‘and there's not a better feller in the whole camp.’

1963 Moderna Språk 57 i. 10 As mad as a cut snake: ‘mad’ is used in the sense of ‘angry’, and the phrase means ‘extremely angry’.

1982 T. Winton Open Swimmer 23 He's as mad as a cut snake.

k. as mad as a tup English regional.

ΚΠ

1901 T. Ratcliffe in Notes & Queries Sept. 501/2 In Derbyshire..there is no commoner saying to express anger shown by any one than to say that he or she was ‘as mad as a tup’.

†l. as mad as a weaver Obsolete.

ΚΠ

1609 Euerie Woman in her Humor sig. B3 If he were as madde as a weauer.

m. as mad as a wet hen

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > anger > irritation > [adjective]

annoyedc1330

crabbedc1480

provoked1538

chafing1539

nettledc1576

chafed1582

irritated1595

as mad as Ajax1598

aggravated1611

enchafeda1616

irritate1626

on or upon the fret1679

as mad as a wet hen1823

as mad as a meat axe1855

scotty1867

hacked1892

raggy1900

ratty1909

pipped1914

fucked-off1923

rubbed1927

eggy1935

broigus1937

salty1938

pissed1943

peed off1948

1823 J. Doddridge Dialogue Backwoodsman & Dandy in Logan 42 Every body that was not ax'd was mad as a wet hen.

1902 W. N. Harben Abner Daniel 54 The Colonel is as mad as a wet hen about the whole thing.

1923 P. G. Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves xviii. 249 My uncle will be as mad as a wet hen when he finds out that he has been fooled.

1971 Wall St. Jrnl. 22 July 1/4 The chicken farmers of Quebec..are as mad as, well a wet hen.

P3. to go (also †fall, run) mad

a. literal.In later use to run mad is most commonly found in East African and West African English.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > be or become mad [verb (intransitive)]

dwelec900

wedec900

awedeeOE

starea1275

braidc1275

ravea1325

to be out of mindc1325

woodc1374

to lose one's mindc1380

madc1384

forgetc1385

to go out of one's minda1398

to wede (out) of, but wita1400

foolc1400

to go (also fall, run) mada1450

forcene1490

ragec1515

waltc1540

maddle?c1550

to go (also run, set) a-madding (or on madding)1565

pass of wita1616

to have a gad-bee in one's brain1682

madden1704

to go (also be) off at the nail1721

distract1768

craze1818

to get a rat1890

to need (to have) one's head examined (also checked, read)1896

(to have) bats in the belfryc1901

to have straws in one's hair1923

to take the bats1927

to go haywire1929

to go mental1930

to go troppo1941

to come apart1954

the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > drive mad [verb (transitive)]

turn1372

mada1425

overthrow?a1425

to go (also fall, run) mada1450

deferc1480

craze1503

to face (a person) out ofc1530

dement1545

distemper1581

shake1594

distract1600

to go (also run, set) a-madding (or on madding)1600

unwita1616

insaniate?1623

embedlama1628

dementate1628

crack1631

unreason1643

bemad1655

ecstasya1657

overset1695

madden1720

maddle1775

insanify1809

derange1825

bemoon1866

send (someone) up the wall1951

a1450 Partonope of Blois (Univ. Coll. Oxf.) (1912) 7894 And in your servyse he come ne hade, He shuld not now have ronne madde.

a1500 in R. H. Robbins Secular Lyrics 14th & 15th Cent. (1952) 153 Thys y goo made, for on hur face y darnot loke lest loue me scorne.

a1522 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid (1957) ii. x. 65 Son, quha sa..ondantit ire has rasyt in thé? Quhy gois thou mad?

a1556 N. Udall Ralph Roister Doister (?1566) iii. ii. sig. D.iij Lest ye for lesing of him perchaunce might runne mad.

1584 R. Greene Gwydonius f. 38^v He..feeleth such painfull passions, as he runneth mad.

1598 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 1 iii. i. 207 Nay, if you melt, then will she run mad.

1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear vii. 445 O foole I shall goe mad .

1654 R. Codrington tr. Sextus Aurelius Victor Coll. Lives Emperors in tr. Justinus Hist. 567 Being troubled in his Conscience he did fall mad.

1670 G. Havers tr. G. Leti Il Cardinalismo di Santa Chiesa ii. iii. 191 Seeing Nini preferr'd, [he] was ready to run mad.

1709 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 12 Nov. (1965) I. 18 You have not then received my letter? Well! I shall run mad.

1782 W. Cowper Poems I. 314 What! hang a man for going mad? Then farewell British freedom.

a1804 W. Blake Vala i, in Compl. Writings (1972) 265 Thou wilt go mad with horror if thou dost Examine thus Every moment of my Secret hours.

1839 in Amer. Speech (1965) 40 130 O dear, I shall go mad, My husband is so crazy.

1861 D. G. Rossetti Early Ital. Poets ii. 220 A perversion of gospel teaching which had gained ground in his day to the extent of becoming a popular frenzy. People went literally mad upon it.

1894 ‘A. Hope’ Prisoner of Zenda x. 143 They might have believed that the King had run mad.

1915 W. S. Maugham Of Human Bondage xciv. 492 He felt he would go mad if he had to spend another night in London.

1956 W. Golding Pincher Martin xii. 188 I am going mad. There is lightning playing on the skirts of a wild sea.

1972 National Assembly Official Rep. (Republic of Kenya) 28 1211 Do you think the statement..that a person works for 24 hours, is right? In fact, if anybody did that he would run mad.

2001 N. Hornby How to be Good iii. 42 It could well be that I am going mad; or, on the other hand, that I am simply confused and unhappy.

2020 Sun (Nigeria) (Nexis) 31 Oct. My husband would do some things that would almost make me run mad.

b. figurative.

ΚΠ

1734 A. Pope Epist. to Arbuthnot 10 It is not Poetry, but Prose run mad.

1762 J. Wesley Jrnl. 6 Nov. in Extract of Jrnl. (1768) XII. 7 That manner of writing, in Prose run mad, I cordially dislike.

1845 C. Dickens Let. 4 Feb. (1977) IV. 261 This packet must go to Torlonia's before Rome goes mad—which will be soon after Mid-day.

1889 C. Smith Repentance Paul Wentworth III. ix. 133 His native land appeared to him to have run mad on the Welsh scare.

1901 G. B. Shaw Three Plays for Puritans Pref. p. xxix Besides, I have a technical objection to making sexual infatuation a tragic theme. Experience proves that it is only effective in the comic spirit..but..to worship it, deify it, and imply that it alone makes our lives worth living, is nothing but folly gone mad erotically.

1914 G. B. Shaw Parents & Children in Misalliance p. cii The sort of Rationalism which says to a child ‘You must suspend your judgment until you are old enough to choose your religion’ is Rationalism gone mad.

1923 L. W. Reese Wild Cherry 21 The weather has gone mad with white.

1949 T. Rattigan Playbill 56 The lighting for this scene has gone mad.

1988 D. Roberts Jean Stafford vii. 126 Stephens College in 1937 was actually a living parody of progressive educational theory—Deweyism gone mad and soft.

c. to drive mad: see drive v. 24c.

d. to go mad (about, for, over, etc.): to allow oneself to be carried away by enthusiasm or excitement.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > zeal or enthusiasm > be zealous for [verb (transitive)]

to run after ——c1422

zeal1542

to throw one's heart (also soul, energy, etc.) into1807

to go mad (about, for, over, etc.)1850

to be shook on1888

to be hepped on1926

the mind > emotion > excitement > riotous excitement > make (oneself) riotously excited [verb (transitive)]

to go mad (about, for, over, etc.)1850

to go (also drive) bananas1957

1850 R. W. Emerson Goethe in Representative Men vii. 261 The ambitious and mercenary bring their last new mumbo-jumbo, whether tariff, Texas, railroad, Romanism, mesmerism, or California; and..a multitude go mad about it.

1876 W. Besant & J. Rice Golden Butterfly II. iii. 48 Why should we not go mad for china? It is as sensible as going mad over rinking.

1936 G. B. Shaw Millionairess i, in Simpleton, Six, & Millionairess 153 The whole town went mad about the angry-eyed woman. It rained money in bucketsful.

1992 Pract. Fishkeeping July 98/3 I went mad and bought a 24″ glass tank with a crude external filter.

Compounds

C1. Parasynthetic.

mad-blooded adj.

ΚΠ

1856 W. Maginn Misc. Writings III. iii. 76 There stands by his side as mad-blooded a spirit as Tybalt himself, and Mercutio..takes up the abandoned quarrel.

1885 J. Runciman Skippers & Shellbacks 84 He was a mad blooded rip that cared for nothing.

mad-humoured adj.

ΚΠ

1665 S. Pepys Diary 6 Dec. (1972) VI. 321 Knipp, who is..the most excellent mad-humourd thing; and sings the noblest that ever I heard.

mad-mooded adj.

ΚΠ

1582 T. Watson Ἑκατομπαθία: Passionate Cent. Loue lii. G2^v Mad mooded Loue vsurping Reasons place.

mad-pated adj.

ΚΠ

1771 Hist. Sir William Harrington II. 215 Your mad-pated Julia.

1814 C. A. Elton tr. Horace in C. A. Elton Specim. Classic Poets II. 205 ‘Whither would you shove, Mad-pated fool?’ some waspish wight Bawls, with a curse.

1848 G. P. R. James Gowrie x. 95 But come, Gowrie, your mad-pated fellow has told you doubtless that you have black neighbours near.

C2.

mad cow disease n. colloquial (chiefly British) bovine spongiform encephalopathy, a progressive, fatal disease of the central nervous system of cattle, prominent signs of which are unsteadiness of gait and behavioural abnormalities.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > ill health > animal disease or disorder > disorders of cattle > [noun] > other disorders of cattle

murrainc1450

gall1577

gargyse1577

sprenges1577

wisp1577

closh1587

milting1587

moltlong1587

hammer1600

mallet1600

scurvy1604

wither1648

speed1704

nostril dropping1708

bladdera1722

heartsick1725

throstling1726

striking1776

feather-cling1799

hollow-horn1805

weed1811

blood striking1815

the slows1822

toad-bit1825

coast-fever1840

horn-distemper1843

rat's tail1847

whethering1847

milk fever1860

milt-sickness1867

pearl tumour1872

actinomycosis1877

pearl disease1877

rat-tail1880

lumpy jaw1891

niatism1895

cripple1897

rumenitis1897

Rhodesian fever1903

reticulitis1905

barbone1907

contagious abortion1910

trichomoniasis1915

shipping fever1932

New Forest disease1954

bovine spongiform encephalopathy1987

BSE1987

mad cow disease1988

East Coast fever2009

1988 Sunday Tel. 6 Nov. 3/1 Tests on the second bull are expected to confirm that it, too, was the victim of..the incurable ‘mad cow disease’ which riddles the brain with holes and can drive docile animals berserk.

1989 Observer 17 Sept. 4/8 Mad cow disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has an incubation period of up to four years.

1990 Australian 17 Jan. 6/3 The British government yesterday denied United States military bases had banned British meat because of ‘mad cow’ disease.

1996 Private Eye 5 Apr. 12/1 In the West Country it is common knowledge that ‘mad cow disease’ was present at epidemic levels long before it was ‘discovered’ by Maffia [sc. Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food] vets in Kent in 1985.

mad —— disease n. (a) humorous (in ad hoc uses), an imaginary affliction of a specified animal, person, etc., esp. one causing unusual or erratic behaviour; (b) colloquial spongiform encephalopathy of the named species.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > disorders of nervous system > [noun] > disorders of brain > other brain disorders

brain damage1864

mind-blindness1888

satellitosis1906

syringobulbia1908

Alzheimer's disease1911

kernicterus1912

pseudotumour1914

brain death1928

punch-drunk1928

Sturge–Weber syndrome1935

Alzheimer1938

Creutzfeldt–Jakob1939

Alzheimer1940

Schilder's disease1940

hypsarrhythmia1952

kuru1957

laughing death1957

Minamata disease1957

myelinolysis1959

spongiform encephalopathy1960

CJD1975

old-timer's disease1983

mad —— disease1990

1990 Independent (Nexis) 27 Jan. 21 The better than expected current account figures prompted a small outbreak of mad bull disease in the stock market yesterday.

1991 Independent 1 Nov. 7/1 A government scientist has conceded for the first time that ‘mad cat’ disease—the feline form of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)—is likely to have been caused by contaminated cat food.

1993 Bookseller (BNC) 8 Jan. 44 Added to that have been the cuts in funding; the attack on the ‘book health’ of schools has been considerable. Mad Curriculum Disease is taking over.

1993 Times (Nexis) 9 Mar. Personally I don't buy french apples (Why, I don't remember); I don't buy cat-food marked ‘beef’ (mad cat disease); and I am wary of eggs (Mrs Currie).

1996 New Statesman 26 July 7/3 These days, when any maître d' of the Conservative Party starts extolling a government-vetted menu, I am uncomfortably reminded of the perils of mad minister disease.

1997 Times-Picayune (New Orleans) (Nexis) 2 Oct. f3 Mad-squirrel disease?.. University of Kentucky researchers believe they may have found a link between the consumption of squirrel brains..and a lethal brain ailment in humans.

C3.

mad hatter n. [with allusion to the eccentric Hatter who hosts the tea party in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), and to the phrase as mad as a hatter at Phrases 2f] a highly eccentric or crazy character (frequently in mad hatter's tea party).

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > slight madness > crankiness or eccentricity > person

fantastical1589

fantastic1598

earwig brain1599

extravagant1627

fanatic1644

energumen1660

original1675

toy-pate1702

gig1777

quiz1780

quoz?1780

rum touch1800

crotcheteer1815

pistol1828

eccentric1832

case1833

originalist1835

cure1856

crotchet-monger1874

curiosity1874

crank1881

crackpot1883

faddist1883

schwärmer1884

hard case1892

finger1899

mad hatter1905

nut1908

numéro1924

screwball1933

wack1938

fruitcake1942

odd bod1942

oddball1943

ghoster1953

raver1959

kook1960

flake1968

woo-woo1972

zonky1972

wacko1977

headbanger1981

the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > slight madness > crankiness or eccentricity > state of affairs

mad hatter's tea party1974

1905 S. R. Crockett Sir Toady Crusoe viii. 59 Of all the mad hatters, Toady Lion,..you do take the bean.

1909 Westm. Gaz. 28 Aug. 14/2 What possible interest can Spain have in a mad-hatter attempt to subjugate the Riff district?

1955 Times 20 May 9/2 I shudder to think of the..consequences of this mad hatter's export subsidy scheme.

1974 Times 9 Nov. 12/6 The world of catering sometimes has the air of a mad hatter's tea party, as chefs and proprietors move from one place to the next.

1990 Scuba Times Mar. 32/3 I watched the mad hatter of the sea, a large puffer fish, hovering over the top of our tiny world, flitting his tiny fins.

mad itch n. Veterinary Medicine pseudorabies (Aujeszky's disease), esp. in ruminants and other species in which intense pruritus is a prominent feature (see pseudorabies n. 2).

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > ill health > animal disease or disorder > disorders of animals generally > [noun] > bacterial or viral

heartwater1880

pseudotuberculosis1888

coccidiosis1892

sarcosporidiosis1893

agalaxia1894

agalactia1897

actinobacillosis1903

Aujeszky's disease1906

necrobacillosis1907

pseudorabies1912

flu1920

tick-borne fever1921

leptospirosis1926

mad itch1931

Rift Valley fever1931

theileriasis1944

vibriosis1951

arenovirus1970

arenavirus1971

1931 Jrnl. Exper. Med. 54 244 The clinical picture of ‘mad itch’ is very suggestive of pseudorabies.

1938 Vet. Rec. 50 745/2 ‘Mad itch’ is a term which was given to the disease, as occurring in cattle, by farmers in North America, owing to the symptom of intense pruritus noted in affected animals.

1995 Vet. Rec. 136 555 The 29 affected sheep developed either the classical ‘mad itch’ signs associated with Aujeszky's disease in ruminants or signs of encephalitis.

1998 Britannica Online (Version 98.2) Pseudorabies, also called Aujeszky's disease or mad itch, viral disease mainly of cattle and swine... A cow shows infection by rubbing against posts and by licking and biting the affected areas.

mad mick n. [rhyming slang] originally and chiefly Australian a pick, a pickaxe (see also quot. 1935).

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > equipment > digging or lifting tools > [noun] > pick

mattockeOE

pickaxe1256

billc1325

pikec1330

pickc1350

peak1454

picker1481

peck1485

beele1671

pix1708

tramp-pick1813

jackass pick1874

mad mick1919

1919 Aussie: Austral. Soldiers' Mag. Jan. 8/1 We were issued with..‘Mad Micks’, as the Diggers call..picks.

1935 A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 74/1 Mad mick, a pick (prison).

1953 T. A. G. Hungerford Riverslake 224 I swung a mad-mick there for eighteen months during the depression.

1973 F. Huelin Keep Moving 78 Well, I won't buy drinks f'r any bloody ganger, just f'r a chance to swing a mad mick.

mad minute n. Army slang a minute of rapid rifle-fire or frenzied bayonet-practice.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > drill or training > [noun] > weapon-training > bayonet practice

mad minute1916

1916 J. N. Hall Kitchener's Mob 28 We were skilled soldiers of the proud and illustrious order known as 'England's Mad-Minute men'.

1931 J. Brophy & E. Partridge Songs & Slang Brit. Soldier: 1914–1918 (ed. 3) 331 Mad Minute, a newspaper phrase for our men's rapid fire during the Retreat from Mons... During the War the name was applied to the frenzied minute charging down the assault course, bayoneting..dummies representing the enemy.

1945 C. H. B. Pridham Superiority of Fire vi. 57 By 1914, many men in each regiment could exceed even twenty rounds in the ‘mad minute’.

1964 C. Falls in S. Nowell-Smith Edwardian Eng. xiv. 537 Reservists and young soldiers alike could shoot steadily and accurately at a relatively slow rate for long periods, or in emergency fire what they called their ‘mad minute’.

1971 Newsweek 11 Jan. 31 A ‘mad minute’—one minute of small-arms firing around the entire perimeter of the base in case enemy troops had infiltrated the area.

2004 E. T. Wise Eleven Bravo 57 During a mad minute everyone on the LZ opens up with whatever weapon he is using and fires into the woodline outside the perimeter, as fast as he can load and reload.

mad money n. colloquial money for use in an emergency or in any unexpected eventuality; money that is surplus to one's normal requirements and which may be spent on a whim.

ΘΚΠ

society > trade and finance > money > funds or pecuniary resources > [noun] > set apart for a purpose > for emergencies

contingency fund1901

mad money1922

1922 Lima (Ohio) News & Times-Democrat 2 Mar. 1/3 The 1922 girl always ‘squirrels’ or hides, a few dollar bills known as ‘mad’ money.

1933 E. H. Partridge Slang To-day & Yesterday v. 285 Mad money, return fare, it being very generally believed by the New Zealand troops..that every English girl infallibly carried her return fare in case her soldier friend became mad, i.e., acted with an excessive freedom of manner.

1943 J. Steinbeck in N.Y. Herald Tribune 2 Sept. 21/2 He has a nest egg or mad money.

1962 L. Deighton Ipcress File x. 61 I think he grabs an S. 1. now and again when he needs some mad money.

1970 ‘D. Shannon’ Unexpected Death (1971) ix. 135 I haven't even a dime of mad money with me, hope I don't need it.

1972 O. Sela Bearer Plot i. 15 I reached for the wad of notes Keith kept as mad money.

1984 A. Maupin Babycakes xiv. 58 ‘Just a little..you know..extra cash.’ ‘Mad money.’

1993 N.Y. Times 7 Nov. iv. 17/3 Deborah Barton..took money out of her own pocket to buy six of her students school uniforms. The Pinewood Elementary P.T.A...gives each teacher $100 for classroom ‘mad money’.

mad mullah n. (also with capital initials) derogatory (originally British) an Islamic religious leader, often a fundamentalist, regarded as dangerous, extremist, or unpredictable; also in extended use; frequently (with the) applied to a particular individual.spec. with reference to Muhammad Abdullah Hassan of northern Somalia who fought against the British in the early part of the 20th cent.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > belief > expressed belief, opinion > extreme opinion, dogmatism > [noun] > person holding

dogmatizer1600

dogmatic1650

dogmatist1654

ultra1823

doctrinaire1831

Doctrinarian1836

mad mullah1838

doctrinist1840

ultraist1842

stalwart1899

fundamentalist1913

pontificator1934

Islamicist1963

society > faith > sect > non-Christian religions > Islam > [noun] > person > fanatical

assassin1340

ghazi1753

mad mullah1838

Razakar1948

1838 E. Spencer Trav. Western Caucasus II. xii. 177 The Sultan was denounced as an infidel giaour, and one or two mad moullahs had the audacity to lecture him publicly.

1897 Times 28 July 7/1 News was received that the ‘mad mullah’, a priest who is apparently well known locally, had gathered about him a number of armed men with the view of raising a jehad.

1902 Internat. Year Bk. 628 In 1901 Great Britain, assisted by Abyssinia, carried on military operations against insurgent Somalis led by the ‘Mad Mullah’, Hajji Mohammed Ibn Abdallah.

1909 D. Lloyd George in Daily Chron. 4 Dec. That is how the Bill was thrown out, not by the wise men, not by the reflecting men of the Unionist Party, but by its Mad Mullahs.

1984 Washington Post 14 June 23/1 The Ayatollah Khomeini is regularly described as the ‘mad mullah’.

2008 D. Koontz Odd Hours 335 ‘He made a great many valuable contacts.’ ‘You mean dictators, thugs, and mad mullahs.’

† mad nightshade n. [after post-classical Latin solanum manicum, Middle French solanum furieux] Obsolete deadly nightshade, Atropa belladonna.

ΘΚΠ

the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Solanaceae (nightshade and allies) > [noun]

morela1400

nightshadea1400

petty morel?a1425

hound's-berryc1485

micklewort1531

manicon1543

garden nightshade1576

dulcamara1578

mad nightshade1578

raging nightshade1578

sleeping nightshade1578

solanum1578

tree nightshade1597

black nightshade1607

moonshade1626

mumme tree1629

winter cherry1629

blue bindweeda1637

canker berry1651

shrub-nightshade1666

poison berry1672

nightshade1733

woody nightshade1796

Sodom apple1808

African nightshade1839

solanal1846

felon-wood1861

shoo-fly plant1949

1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball 447 The other is called Solanum Manicum, that is to say Mad or Raging Night~shade.

1600 R. Surflet tr. C. Estienne & J. Liébault Maison Rustique ii. xliv. 290 Diuers plants which haue the same vertue, as mad nightshade.

Mad Parliament n. [after post-classical Latin insane Parliamentum (see quot. 1274)] English History (a name given to) the meeting of the barons at Oxford in 1258, which passed the ‘Provisions of Oxford’.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > deliberative, legislative, or administrative assembly > types of deliberative or legislative assembly > [noun] > meeting of barons (Oxford, 1258)

Mad Parliament1565

1274 in T. Stapleton Liber de Antiquis Legibus (1846) 37 Hoc anno fuit illud insane Parliamentum apud Oxoniam.]

1565 J. Stow Summarie Eng. Chrons. f. 90 The kyng..helde a parliament at Oxenford, which was after called the madde parliament.

1875 W. Stubbs Constit. Hist. II. xiv. §176. 74 On the 11th of June [1258], at Oxford, the Mad Parliament, as it was called by Henry's partisans, assembled.

1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 492/2 He played a conspicuous part in the reign of Henry III., notably in the Mad Parliament of 1258, and died at Amiens in 1260.

2012 R. Shepherd Westminster viii. 64 This ‘Mad Parliament’, as it was later nicknamed by royalists, vested power in a council of 15 barons and bishops, and appointed Hugh Bigod to the revived post of justiciar, or chief minister.

mad scene n. Theatre a scene depicting the insanity of one of the characters in a play, opera, etc.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > a play > [noun] > scene > type of scene or act

monologuec1550

monology1608

night scene1683

mad scene1741

drop-scene1815

recognition scene1838

carpenter's-scene1860

scène à faire1884

mob scene1890

sex scene1915

curtain1928

1741 S. Richardson Pamela IV. xiv. 84 Upon this Orestes runs mad, and it is said to be the finest mad Scene in any English Play.

1808 Monthly Pantheon 1 294/2 The mad scene kept pace with the various excellencies that preceded it.

1905 E. M. Forster Where Angels fear to Tread vi. 206 The climax was reached in the mad scene.

1988 M. Charney Hamlet's Fictions i. iii. 41 Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene..is also a mad scene, in which she speaks in the..broken discourse we have come to expect from Elizabethan madwomen.

2009 R. Harris-Warrick in A. Fauser & M. Everist Music, Theater, & Cultural Transfer ix. 203 Only La gazette de France appeared to recognize that the mad scene was a ‘frightening’ challenge for a singer.

mad scientist n. a scientist who is mad or eccentric, esp. so as to be dangerous or evil: a stock figure of melodramatic horror stories; frequently attributive.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > slight madness > crankiness or eccentricity > person > specific

mad scientist1893

flat-earth-man1908

flat-earther1934

1893 Newark (Ohio) Daily Advocate 11 July 6/3 Nerving myself for the blow, I felled the mad scientist dead at my feet.

1908 ‘R. McDonald’ (title) Mad scientist: a tale of the future.

1940 ‘N. Blake’ Malice in Wonderland iii. xviii. 282 A sort of mad-scientist motive for the whole series of outrages.

1963 ‘G. Bagby’ Murder's Little Helper (1964) iv. 36 The whole idea smacked too much of some mad-scientist fable out of a comic strip.

1972 B. Turner Solden's Women ix. 82 He would have passed for the mad scientist in one of those films which star giant insects.

1999 N.Y. Times 7 Jan. d 4/2 The characters are..all wildly charismatic and telegenic:..artist, street thug, office girl, space alien, budding mad scientist.

madtom n. any of various small North American freshwater catfishes of the genus Noturus (family Ictaluridae), which can inflict wounds with the poisonous spines in their pectoral fins.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > fish > class Osteichthyes or Teleostomi > order Siluriformes (catfish) > [noun] > member of family Ictaluridae

bullhead1674

horn-pout1798

horned pout1837

minister1839

channel cat1847

flannel-mouth1882

stone-cat1882

madtom1896

1896 D. S. Jordan & B. W. Evermann Check-list Fishes & Fish-like Vertebr. N. & Middle Amer. 234 Schilbeodes insignis..Mad Tom. Pennsylvania to South Carolina.

1947 B. W. Dalrymple Panfish 290 In the Stonecat and Madtoms, this adipose fin is long and low, and usually connected in a continuous line with the tail, or caudal fin.

1996 J. Updike In Beauty of Lilies 134 This industry has drained the local forests of oak bark and ceased to pour its acids and chromium salts and dyes into the Avon, which gradually recovered its clear color and its fish, its trout and perch and those bright little spiny, vicious catfish called madtoms.

Derivatives

ˈmad-like adj. and adv.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > [adjective] > insanity or madness > affected with

woodc725

woodsekc890

giddyc1000

out of (by, from, of) wit or one's witc1000

witlessc1000

brainsickOE

amadc1225

lunaticc1290

madc1330

sickc1340

brain-wooda1375

out of one's minda1387

frenetica1398

fonda1400

formada1400

unwisea1400

brainc1400

unwholec1400

alienate?a1425

brainless1434

distract of one's wits1470

madfula1475

furious1475

distract1481

fro oneself1483

beside oneself1490

beside one's patience1490

dementa1500

red-wood?1507

extraught1509

misminded1509

peevish1523

bedlam-ripe1525

straughta1529

fanatic1533

bedlama1535

daft1540

unsounda1547

stark raving (also staring) mad1548

distraughted1572

insane1575

acrazeda1577

past oneself1576

frenzy1577

poll-mad1577

out of one's senses1580

maddeda1586

frenetical1588

distempered1593

distraught1597

crazed1599

diswitted1599

idle-headed1599

lymphatical1603

extract1608

madling1608

distracteda1616

informala1616

far gone1616

crazy1617

March mada1625

non compos mentis1628

brain-crazed1632

demented1632

crack-brained1634

arreptitiousa1641

dementate1640

dementated1650

brain-crackeda1652

insaniated1652

exsensed1654

bedlam-witteda1657

lymphatic1656

mad-like1679

dementative1685

non compos1699

beside one's gravity1716

hyte1720

lymphated1727

out of one's head1733

maddened1735

swivel-eyed1758

wrong1765

brainsickly1770

fatuous1773

derangedc1790

alienated1793

shake-brained1793

crack-headed1796

flighty1802

wowf1802

doitrified1808

phrenesiac1814

bedlamite1815

mad-braineda1822

fey1823

bedlamitish1824

skire1825

beside one's wits1827

as mad as a hatter1829

crazied1842

off one's head1842

bemadded1850

loco1852

off one's nut1858

off his chump1864

unsane1867

meshuga1868

non-sane1868

loony1872

bee-headed1879

off one's onion1881

off one's base1882

(to go) off one's dot1883

locoed1885

screwy1887

off one's rocker1890

balmy or barmy on (or in) the crumpet1891

meshuggener1892

nutty1892

buggy1893

bughouse1894

off one's pannikin1894

ratty1895

off one's trolley1896

batchy1898

twisted1900

batsc1901

batty1903

dippy1903

bugs1904

dingy1904

up the (also a) pole1904

nut1906

nuts1908

nutty as a fruitcake1911

bugged1920

potty1920

cuckoo1923

nutsy1923

puggled1923

blah1924

détraqué1925

doolally1925

off one's rocket1925

puggle1925

mental1927

phooey1927

crackers1928

squirrelly1928

over the edge1929

round the bend1929

lakes1934

ding-a-ling1935

wacky1935

screwball1936

dingbats1937

Asiatic1938

parlatic1941

troppo1941

up the creek1941

screwed-up1943

bonkers1945

psychological1952

out to lunch1955

starkers1956

off (one's) squiff1960

round the twist1960

yampy1963

out of (also off) one's bird1966

out of one's skull1967

whacked out1969

batshit1971

woo-woo1971

nutso1973

out of (one's) gourd1977

wacko1977

off one's meds1986

1679 J. Carkesse Lucida Intervalla 51 He's resolv'd at once to rid the State, Of this Poetick, Wanton, Mad-like Tribe.

1816 W. Scott Antiquary I. vi. 139 ‘Did you ever hear such an old tup-headed ass?’ said Oldbuck, briefly apostrophizing Lovel; ‘but I must not let him go in this mad-like way neither.’

1887 P. McNeill Blawearie 144 The mad-like act would never have been heard of.

1945 L. Saxon et al. Gumbo Ya-ya (Federal Writers' Project) xiv. 299 He heared my grandma breathin' mad-like right inside, jest waitin' for him.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2000; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

单词	mad
释义	† madn.¹ Forms: 1500s made, 1500s–1800s mad, 1600s madd. Origin: A variant or alteration of another lexical item. Etymon: mathe n. Etymology: Variant of mathe n.Recorded in Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v. in Yorkshire and Essex (for the latter recording also a form mid ). For recent Scottish and Shetland forms in -d- see s.v. mathe n. Obsolete (British regional in later use). 1. A maggot or grub; esp. the larva of a blowfly, which causes a disease (cutaneous myiasis) in sheep. Also in plural: the disease caused by the larva; strike. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > ill health > animal disease or disorder > disorders of sheep > [noun] > other disorders of sheep pocka1325 soughta1400 pox1530 mad1573 winter rot1577 snuffa1585 leaf1587 leaf-sickness1614 redwater1614 mentigo1706 tag1736 white water1743 hog pox1749 rickets1755 side-ill1776 resp1789 sheep-fag1789 thorter-ill1791 vanquish1792 smallpox1793 shell-sicknessc1794 sickness1794 grass-ill1795 rub1800 pine1804 pining1804 sheep-pock1804 stinking ill1807 water sickness1807 core1818 wryneck1819 tag-belt1826 tag-sore1828 kibe1830 agalaxia1894 agalactia1897 lupinosis1899 trembling1902 struck1903 black disease1906 scrapie1910 renguerra1917 pulpy kidney1927 dopiness1932 blowfly strike1933 body strike1934 sleepy sickness1937 swayback1938 twin lamb disease1945 tick pyaemia1946 fly-strike1950 maedi1952 nematodiriasis1957 visna1957 maedi-visna1972 visna-maedi1972 the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > eggs or young > [noun] > young or development of young > larva niteOE wormOE grubc1420 canker1440 caterpillarc1440 cankerworm1530 mad1573 bug1594 blote1657 vermicle1657 hexapod1668 grub-worm1752 truffle-worm1753 larva1768 larve1822 the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Diptera or flies > [noun] > suborder Cyclorrhapha > family Calliphoridae > member of > larva of mad1573 gentle1577 1573 T. Tusser Fiue Hundreth Points Good Husbandry (new ed.) f. 46 Sheepe wrigling tayle, hath madds without fayle. a1642 H. Best Farming & Memorandum Bks. (1984) 8 Lambes that wriggle theyre tayles..are to bee..searched for feare of maddes breedinge. 1669 J. Worlidge Systema Agriculturæ 273 Madds, a Disease in Sheep. 1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. 268/1 Keep Sheeps Tails from Maggots and Mads. 2. An earthworm. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > invertebrates > subkingdom Metazoa > grade Triploblastica or Coelomata > phylum Annelida > [noun] > class Chaetopoda > order Oligochaeta > family Lumbricidae > member of (earthworm) angletwitcheOE earthworma1400 maddocka1400 tweyangle14.. wormc1400 grass worm1565 easse1582 mad1586 dew-worm1598 ground-worm1599 earth-mad1601 yellowtail1608 twatchel1661 rainworm1731 fish-worm1854 mudworm1871 intraclitellian1888 Morrenian1890 terricole1890 1586 W. Warner Albions Eng. ii. ix. 36 Content thee Daphles, Mooles take mads. 1592 W. Warner Albions Eng. (rev. ed.) vii. xxxvii. 164 Heere maiest thou feast thee with a Mad. 1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World II. 361 Earth-worms or mads stamped and laid too are verie good to cure the biting of scorpions. 1673 J. Ray S. & E. Countrey Words in Coll. Eng. Words 71 Mad, an Earth worm. 1880 R. S. Charnock Gloss. Essex Dial. 28 Mad, an earth-worm. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2000; most recently modified version published online December 2021). madn.² Brit. /mad/, U.S. /mæd/ Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: mad adj. Etymology: < mad adj. Compare earlier mad-doctor n., madhouse n. 1. With plural agreement. With the. Mad people as a class. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > mentally ill person > [noun] > mad person woodman1297 madmanc1330 lunatic1377 franticc1380 madwomana1438 March harec1500 Bedlam beggar1525 fanaticc1525 bedlama1529 frenetic1528 Jack o' Bedlam1528 Tom o' Bedlam1569 crack-brain1570 madbrain1570 Tom1575 madcap1589 gelt1596 madhead1600 brainsick1605 madpash1611 non compos1628 madling1638 bedlam-man1658 bedlamerc1675 fan1682 bedlamite1691 cracka1701 lymphatic1708 shatter-brain1719 mad1729 maniaca1763 non compos mentis1765 shatter-pate1775 shatter-wit1775 insane1786 craze1831 dement1857 crazy1867 crackpot1883 loony1884 bug1885 psychopath1885 dingbat1887 psychopathic1890 ding-a-ling1899 meshuggener1900 détraqué1902 maddiea1903 nut1908 mental1913 ding1929 lakes1934 wack1938 fruitcake1942 nutty1942 barm-pot1951 nutcake1953 nutter1958 nutcase1959 nut job1959 meshuga1962 nutsy1964 headcase1965 nutball1968 headbanger1973 nutso1975 wacko1977 nut bar1978 mentalist1990 1729 A. Pope Dunciad (new ed.) i. 9 She saw slow Philips creep like Tate's poor page, And all the Mighty Mad in Dennis rage. 1987 T. C. Boyle World's End (1988) xi. 150 The eyes stared out of his head with the exophthalmic vehemence of the eyes of the mad. 2. regional and colloquial (chiefly U.S.). Fury, anger; a fit of anger. Phrase to have a mad on. Formerly frequently in to get one's mad up. ΚΠ 1834 J. K. Polk Let. 13 Feb. in J. S. Bassett Southern Plantation Overseer (1925) 65 I will be damde if I can do anythinge with them and they all ways in the mads. 1847 J. O. Halliwell Dict. Archaic & Provinc. Words II Mad,..madness, intoxication. Glouc. 1867 W. L. Goss Soldier's Story xiv. 258 The Colonel has got his mad up. 1878 E. B. Tuttle Border Tales 50 A grizzly will stand in the middle of the road, growling and getting his mad up. 1884 Cent. Mag. Nov. 57/2 His mad was getting up. 1897 Outing 30 487/2 Let the pony get his mad up. 1916 H. L. Wilson Somewhere in Red Gap ii. 57 She kept her mad down better. She set there as nice and sweet as a pet scorpion. 1931 O. Nash in R. James All about N.Y. 12 Mr. Murgatroyd: He's got a mad on. 1950 J. D. MacDonald Brass Cupcake (1955) iii. 25 When I want a personality course, friend, I'll go to someone who hasn't a mad on at the world. 1973 M. Gordon & G. Gordon Informant xxxiii. 128 Well, thanks a lot! I go through hell for you and you take your mad out on me. 1992 L. Niven & S. Barnes Calif. Voodoo Game xxxviii. 322 That reactor has such a mad on. Gonna get a lot worse, real quick. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2000; most recently modified version published online March 2022). madadj. Brit. /mad/, U.S. /mæd/ Forms: Middle English maad, Middle English med, Middle English medd, Middle English medde, Middle English–1500s made, Middle English–1600s madd, Middle English–1600s madde, Middle English– mad; Scottish pre-1700 madd, pre-1700 madde, pre-1700 made, pre-1700 maid, pre-1700 1700s– mad. Origin: A variant or alteration of another lexical item. Etymons: amad adj.; English gemǣd. Etymology: Aphetic < either amad adj. or < Old English gemǣd (see amad adj.). Evidence suggesting limited continuation of the related Old English gemād is doubtful: see further discussion at amad adj.Senses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 are all first attested between the second half of the 13th cent. and the first half of the 14th cent.; the priority of the sense ‘rabid’ is probably accidental, whereas the existence of the earlier Middle English amad , and of Old English gemǣd , suggests that ‘insane’ was in fact the primary sense. The word wōd (wood adj., n.², and adv.) was commonly used for this in Old English and early Middle English but became rare outside northern regional use by the 16th cent., leaving mad as the usual word for ‘insane’. In a similar way, mad emerged, after the decline of wroth and other synonyms which had been common in Middle English, as the usual term for ‘feeling anger’ in many dialects in Great Britain (and later in North America), alongside standard English angry; use in this sense is frequently proscribed in usage guides from the late 18th cent. onwards. 1. Of an animal: abnormally aggressive; spec. (esp. of a dog) suffering from rabies, rabid. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > by nature > [adjective] > wild or vicious wildc725 wrothOE keenOE ramagec1300 fell?c1335 furiousc1374 fierce1377 ramageousa1398 eagerc1405 savage1447 naughtyc1460 criminal1477 ill1480 shrewd1509 mankind1519 roidc1540 mad1565 horn-mad1579 fierceful1607 man-keen1607 indomite1617 fellish1638 ferocious1646 ferousa1652 ferinea1676 kwaai1827 skelm1827 c1275 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo.:Morton) 66 (note) Madde [c1230 Corpus Cambr. 36/9 Intrinsecus autem sunt lupi rapaces..monie..beoþ wedde wulues]. ?a1450 in Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. (1923) 38 353 Þe devel ay folowed about..In liknesse of a bole grym..And as a mad dogge also. 1529 T. More Supplyc. Soulys i. f. x^v As mad not as marche hare, but as a madde dogge. 1565 T. Cooper Thesaurus at Furibundus Canis furibundus,..madde dogge. Taurus furibundus,..madde bull. 1579 W. Fulke Heskins Parl. Repealed in D. Heskins Ouerthrowne 463 Dogges after they had eaten the sacrament,..ranne madde. a1616 W. Shakespeare Comedy of Errors (1623) v. i. 71 The venome clamors of a iealous woman, Poisons more deadly then a mad dogges tooth. View more context for this quotation 1629 R. M. Micrologia sig. A3 I shall not unfirly resemble the Painter, who being to figure forth the fury of a mad dogge, [etc.]. 1702 Playbill 27 Apr. in 12th Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. MSS (1890) App. iii. 7 A great Mad Bull to be turned loose in the Game-place, with Fire-works all over him. 1766 O. Goldsmith Vicar of Wakefield I. xvii. 176 The dog, to gain some private ends, Went mad and bit the man. 1769 T. Pennant Brit. Zool. (new ed.) III. iv. 315 Fish thus affected the Thames fishermen call mad bleaks. 1800 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 4 58 Keep the dogs, or other animals, supposed mad, shut up safely in a convenient place for five or six weeks. 1846 C. Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) vi. 50 A thundering alarm of ‘Mad Bull!’ was raised. 1931 N. Coward Mad Dogs & Englishmen (song) 5 Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun. 1990 R. Blount First Hubby 53 I'm jus' a po' old falsely 'spected breaker and enterer, and you th'ow me in with a mad dog with his goober red! 2. Of a person, action, disposition, etc.: uncontrolled by reason or judgement; foolish, unwise. Subsequently only in stronger use (corresponding to the modern restricted application of sense 3a, from which it is now often indistinguishable): extravagantly or wildly foolish; ruinously imprudent. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > inattention > mental wandering > [adjective] bemazed?c1225 madc1300 maskedc1300 marreda1375 astoniedc1386 adasedc1450 astonished1513 moping1566 bewandered1574 dizzy1579 westy1598 night-wildered1652 disconcerted1686 muzzy1723 flustered1743 bewildered1760 flurried1775 muddled1790 thought-bewildered1796 bedazzled1805 muggy1824 mused1842 moony1847 beflustered1864 bemused1880 snarled1881 bedazed1882 bemuddled1883 disoriented1957 disorientated1959 wifty1973 the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > weakness of intellect > madness, extreme folly > [adjective] woodc900 madc1300 wild1515 hare-brained1548 idle1548 harish1552 frantic1561 hare-brain1566 lunatic1571 lunatical1599 datelessa1686 flaky1964 tonto1982 c1300 Body & Soul (Laud Misc. 108) (1889) 47 (MED) I þolede þe and [dude] as mad To be maister and i þi cnave. c1400 (?c1380) Pearl 267 (MED) If þou schal lose Þy ioy for a gemme þat þe watz lef, Me þynk þe put in a mad porpose. 1509 A. Barclay Brant's Shyp of Folys (Pynson) f. lxxv^v Thou art blynde, and mad to set thy brayne All thynge to venge (by wrath) that doth mysfall. a1540 R. Barnes in W. Tyndale et al. Wks. (1573) 349/1 Is not this a madde manner of prayer that men vse to our Lady? 1608 T. Middleton (title) A mad world, my masters. a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It (1623) iii. ii. 392 I draue my Sutor from his mad humor of loue, to a liuing humor of madnes. View more context for this quotation 1743 J. Bulkeley & J. Cummins Voy. to South-seas Pref. 14 Our Attempt for Liberty in sailing..with such a number of People, stow'd in a Long Boat, has been censur'd as a mad Undertaking. 1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. v. 643 The chief justice..was not mad enough to risk a quarrel on such a subject. 1864 R. Browning Confessions in Dramatis Personæ 141 How sad and bad and mad it was—But then, how it was sweet! 1878 B. Taylor Prince Deukalion i. ii. 27 Was I mad, To fear, one moment, thou couldst ever die? 1933 ‘G. Ingram’ ‘Stir’ xvi. 254 You get the screws and squaddies to shoot at us! Why, you're—well mad, you are. 1991 She May 64 Her husband..thinks she must be mad to add years on in a place like Los Angeles. 3. a. Of a person: insane, crazy; mentally unbalanced or deranged; subject to delusions or hallucinations; (in later use esp.) psychotic. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > [adjective] > insanity or madness > affected with woodc725 woodsekc890 giddyc1000 out of (by, from, of) wit or one's witc1000 witlessc1000 brainsickOE amadc1225 lunaticc1290 madc1330 sickc1340 brain-wooda1375 out of one's minda1387 frenetica1398 fonda1400 formada1400 unwisea1400 brainc1400 unwholec1400 alienate?a1425 brainless1434 distract of one's wits1470 madfula1475 furious1475 distract1481 fro oneself1483 beside oneself1490 beside one's patience1490 dementa1500 red-wood?1507 extraught1509 misminded1509 peevish1523 bedlam-ripe1525 straughta1529 fanatic1533 bedlama1535 daft1540 unsounda1547 stark raving (also staring) mad1548 distraughted1572 insane1575 acrazeda1577 past oneself1576 frenzy1577 poll-mad1577 out of one's senses1580 maddeda1586 frenetical1588 distempered1593 distraught1597 crazed1599 diswitted1599 idle-headed1599 lymphatical1603 extract1608 madling1608 distracteda1616 informala1616 far gone1616 crazy1617 March mada1625 non compos mentis1628 brain-crazed1632 demented1632 crack-brained1634 arreptitiousa1641 dementate1640 dementated1650 brain-crackeda1652 insaniated1652 exsensed1654 bedlam-witteda1657 lymphatic1656 mad-like1679 dementative1685 non compos1699 beside one's gravity1716 hyte1720 lymphated1727 out of one's head1733 maddened1735 swivel-eyed1758 wrong1765 brainsickly1770 fatuous1773 derangedc1790 alienated1793 shake-brained1793 crack-headed1796 flighty1802 wowf1802 doitrified1808 phrenesiac1814 bedlamite1815 mad-braineda1822 fey1823 bedlamitish1824 skire1825 beside one's wits1827 as mad as a hatter1829 crazied1842 off one's head1842 bemadded1850 loco1852 off one's nut1858 off his chump1864 unsane1867 meshuga1868 non-sane1868 loony1872 bee-headed1879 off one's onion1881 off one's base1882 (to go) off one's dot1883 locoed1885 screwy1887 off one's rocker1890 balmy or barmy on (or in) the crumpet1891 meshuggener1892 nutty1892 buggy1893 bughouse1894 off one's pannikin1894 ratty1895 off one's trolley1896 batchy1898 twisted1900 batsc1901 batty1903 dippy1903 bugs1904 dingy1904 up the (also a) pole1904 nut1906 nuts1908 nutty as a fruitcake1911 bugged1920 potty1920 cuckoo1923 nutsy1923 puggled1923 blah1924 détraqué1925 doolally1925 off one's rocket1925 puggle1925 mental1927 phooey1927 crackers1928 squirrelly1928 over the edge1929 round the bend1929 lakes1934 ding-a-ling1935 wacky1935 screwball1936 dingbats1937 Asiatic1938 parlatic1941 troppo1941 up the creek1941 screwed-up1943 bonkers1945 psychological1952 out to lunch1955 starkers1956 off (one's) squiff1960 round the twist1960 yampy1963 out of (also off) one's bird1966 out of one's skull1967 whacked out1969 batshit1971 woo-woo1971 nutso1973 out of (one's) gourd1977 wacko1977 off one's meds1986 c1330 (?c1300) Amis & Amiloun (Auch.) (1937) 1983 (MED) What foly..can he sain? Is he madde of mode? a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) i. 128 (MED) For certes such a maladie..myhte make a wisman madd. a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) v. 496 And if..hir list noght to be gladd, He berth an hond that sche is madd. Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 319 Madde, or wood: Amens, demens, furiosus. 1489 W. Caxton tr. C. de Pisan Bk. Fayttes of Armes iii. xx. Oiii Whyche duk or erle happeth..to wex madde, so that al alone as a fole he gothe renning by wodes and hedges. 1590 H. Swinburne Briefe Treat. Test. & Willes ii. f. 37 They did see him hisse like a goose or barke lyke a dogge, or play such other parts as madfolks vse to doo. a1616 W. Shakespeare Comedy of Errors (1623) ii. ii. 11 Wast thou mad, That thus so madlie thou..didst answere me? View more context for this quotation 1665 S. Pepys Diary 25 Jan. (1972) VI. 21 He told me what a mad freaking fellow Sir Ellis Layton hath been and is—and once at Antwerp, was really mad. 1726 J. Swift Gulliver I. ii. viii. 149 Some of them upon hearing me talk so wildly thought I was mad. 1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1729 I. 28 If a man tells me that he sees this [sc. a ruffian with a drawn sword], and in consternation calls to me to look at it, I pronounce him to be mad. 1814 S. Smith in Edinb. Rev. Apr. 197 A mad Quaker belongs to a small and rich sect; and is, therefore, of greater importance than any other mad person of the same degree in life. 1829 S. Cooper Good's Study Med. (ed. 3) IV. 101 I felt, said he, it would again drive me mad if I did not relieve it. 1855 Ld. Tennyson Maud xxv. i, in Maud & Other Poems 90 And then to hear a dead man chatter Is enough to drive one mad. 1899 T. L. Stedman 20th Cent. Pract. XVIII. 623 The lower part of the frontal skin is drawn downwards and conceals the eyes, as in mad persons and lions. 1922 A. Conan Doyle Probl. Thor Bridge in Strand Mag. Mar. 231/2 She was like a mad woman—indeed, I think she was a mad woman, subtly mad with the deep power of deception which insane people may have. 1958 E. Dundy Dud Avocado iii. vi. 270 My first thought was that I had gone stark raving mad..and that I was now hallucinating in a looney bin. 1969 B. Rubens Elected Member vii. 81 His patient insistence that all were mad and only he was sane. 1981 M. West Clowns of God ii. 41 They would make Jean Marie Barette look like the maddest of mad mullahs, the craziest of all the prophets of doom. 1996 Time Out 31 July 92/4 The Gothic yet strangely gentle fantasy world inhabited by poor, mad Miss Havisham, nesting her broken heart amid the cobwebby remains of her wedding finery. †b. Causing madness. Obsolete. rare. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > [adjective] > insanity or madness > causing mad1567 madding1592 extractinga1616 insanea1616 dementating1652 maddening1822 dementing1861 pathogenic1909 1567 J. Maplet Greene Forest f. 41^v There is another kind of the self same name which is called mad Dwale. Which being drunken sheweth wonders by a certain false shewe of imagination. 1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 909 There is also another kinde of pernicious honey made, which from the madness that it causeth, is termed Mad-honey. 1676 J. Dryden Aureng-Zebe iv. 57 Pow'r like new Wine, does your weak Brain surprise, And its mad fumes, in hot discourses, rise. c. Of wind, a storm, the sea: wild, violent. ΘΚΠ the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > bad weather > [adjective] > stormy > violent or raging sharp1377 sticklec1450 angry1557 storming1557 furious1585 mad1594 rageful1595 angered1603 main1627 tearing1633 irrefrenary1658 1594 W. Shakespeare Titus Andronicus iii. i. 221 If the winds rage, doth not the sea waxe mad . View more context for this quotation 1628 World Encompassed by Sir F. Drake 42 The impossibility to come to anchor; the want of opportunitie to spread any sayle; the most mad seas; the lee shores; the dangerous rocks. 1850 E. B. Browning Poet's Vow i. xiii, in Poems I. 256 Mad winds, that howling go From east to west. 1863 T. Woolner My Beautiful Lady 50 Here the mad gale had rioted and thrown Far drifts of snowy petals. 1897 J. Conrad Nigger of ‘Narcissus’ iii. 49 Never before had the gale seemed to us more furious, the sea more mad. 1982 Dict. Newfoundland Eng. 318/2 There's a mad sea on. 2000 Spectator 17 June 10/2 The eastern end of this island is..relatively sheltered from the mad westerly gales which march across the archipelago. d. Of behaviour, speech, etc.: that resembles that of an insane person; suggestive or symptomatic of insanity. ΚΠ 1766 A. Nicol Poems Several Subj. 198 Sometimes mad laughter drives him into frets. Sometimes he's pleas'd, sometimes in anger frowns. 1897 J. Davidson New Ballads 39 They found him conjuring chaos with mad words. 1954 W. Lewis Self Condemned vi. 71 René actually kicked Victor sharply on the shins, as he threw a foot out in a spasm of mad mirth. 1979 J. Wainwright Brainwash xli. 177 Mad laughter seemed to tremble on his lips and his eyes widened with momentary mania. †4. Of a person: stupefied with astonishment, fear, or suffering; dazed. Obsolete. ΚΠ c1330 Seven Sages (Auch.) (1933) 771 (MED) Þe felle bor bicam to come; Þe herde..was of drad; He dorst nowt fle, he was so mad. a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 10851 Sant gabriel..said her till, ‘Maria, quarfor es þou madd? Es þe na nede to be radd?’ a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 24886 (MED) All þaa þat in þat ferr cost fard War medd quen þai him [sc. the angel] sagh and herd. c1480 (a1400) St. Theodora 129 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) II. 103 Þu art nov pensiwe & mad, & wont wes to be blith & glad. a1513 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) I. 87 Gife I be sorrowfull and sad, Than will thay say that I am mad. c1540 (?a1400) Gest Historiale Destr. Troy 11542 Þus in pouert am I pyght..Þat makes me full mad & mournes in my hert. 1567 Compend. Bk. Godly Songs (rev. ed.) f. 105^v Of lait I saw thir lymmaris stand, Lyke mad men at mischeif. 5. a. Of a person: carried away by or filled with enthusiasm or desire; wildly excited; infatuated. With about, after, for, †of, on (chiefly British), over, †upon, with. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > zeal or enthusiasm > [adjective] > extremely mada1350 wild1811 wilda1817 crazy1826 besmitten1873 schwärmerisch1894 bugs1908 buggy1913 born-again1928 nutso1973 the mind > emotion > violent emotion > [adjective] > affected by violent emotion woodc900 reighOE mada1350 furiousc1374 raginga1425 savagea1450 rageous1486 frenetic?c1550 frantic1561 frenetical1588 impotent1596 transported1600 violent1601 turbulent1609 dementing1729 enfrenzied1823 wild1868 haywire1934 wigged-out1977 the mind > emotion > excitement > extravagant or rapturous excitement > [adjective] > affected by mada1350 inebriate1497 rapt1539 attoxicated1604 inebriated1610 intoxicated1620 exalted1712 slap-happy1936 slappy1937 happy-slappy1943 buzzed1952 stoned1952 the mind > emotion > love > liking or favourable regard > [adjective] > enthusiastic (about or for) servile1581 enamorate1599 mad1744 bugs1908 high1933 a1350 in G. L. Brook Harley Lyrics (1968) 34 (MED) Wiþ longyng y am lad, on molde y waxe mad. ?a1400 (a1338) R. Mannyng Chron. (Petyt) (1996) i. 7494 Oute of messure was he glad, ffor of [a1450 Lamb. opon] þat maidin he wex alle mad. 1587 T. Underdowne tr. Heliodorus Æthiop. Hist. i. f. 5^v For if any woman ever knew how to make a man madde of her, shee was better skilled in that Arte, then any man woulde thinke. 1611 Bible (King James) Jer. l. 38 It is the land of grauen images, and they are madde vpon their idoles. View more context for this quotation a1616 W. Shakespeare All's Well that ends Well (1623) v. iii. 263 He loued her, for indeede he was madde for her. View more context for this quotation 1631 B. Jonson Bartholmew Fayre i. iv. 9 in Wks. II I thought he would ha' runne madde o' the blacke boy in Bucklers-bury. 1678 T. Rymer Trag. Last Age 7 I cannot be perswaded that the people are so very mad of Acorns, but that they could be well content to eat the Bread of civil persons. 1690 W. Walker Idiomatologia Anglo-Lat. (ed. 5) 283/1 He began to be mad on her. 1692 J. Dryden Cleomenes Pref. sig. A4 The World is running mad after Farce, the Extremitie of bad Poetry. 1700 J. Dryden tr. Ovid Cinyras & Myrrha in Fables 178 Mad with Desire, she ruminates her Sin, And wishes all her Wishes o'er again. 1719 D. Defoe Farther Adventures Robinson Crusoe 228 They were mad upon their Journey. 1744 H. Walpole Let. 29 May in Corr. with H. Mann (1955) II. 452 We are now mad about tar-water. 1814 J. Austen Mansfield Park III. xii. 228 My friend Mrs. Fraser is mad for such a house. View more context for this quotation 1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. ii. 175 The people were mad with loyal enthusiasm. 1868 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest I. vii. 42 When all the world seemed mad after monks. 1882 Ld. Tennyson Charge Heavy Brigade iii, in Macmillan's Mag. Mar. 338 O mad for the charge and the battle were we. 1913 D. H. Lawrence Sons & Lovers iv. 80 Everybody was mad with excitement. 1925 S. O'Casey Juno & Paycock iii, in Two Plays 79 The way he was always bringin' you to dances, I thought he was mad afther you. 1966 Daily Mail 7 Nov. 4/6 ‘Not bad,’ he reported. ‘Wasn't mad about the parsley sauce, but the snails were great.’ 1978 C. James Flying Visits (1984) 67 Mad with enthusiasm, some of the more adventurous spirits even dared to immerse themselves in the sea. 1983 S. Naipaul Hot Country viii. 114 On the Portobello Road they'd go mad over that stuff. 1984 E. Jong Parachutes & Kisses xvii. 282 They were mad for each other. 1987 S. Eldred-Grigg Oracles & Miracles i. 15 Jock and Eddie was mad on motor-bike racing. b. Chiefly British. With infinitive: wildly desirous (to do something). ΘΚΠ the mind > will > wish or inclination > desire > vehement or passionate desire > [adjective] > vehemently or passionately desirous wildc725 ardentc1374 fierce1377 flagrant?1521 zealous1526 passionatea1530 heady1543 concupiscentious1555 passionative1593 luxurious1614 mada1627 concupitive1651 sultry1671 hot-tempered1673 ardurousa1770 wild1811 nympholeptic1818 concupiscenta1834 a1627 T. Middleton Women beware Women iii. ii, in 2 New Playes (1657) 156 This makes me madder to enjoy him now. 1729 J. Swift Jrnl. Dublin Lady 5 All mad to speak, and none to hearken. 1794 E. Gunning Packet IV. ix. 166 Every honest cottager was so mad to pursue it after his own mode, that [etc.]. 1814 R. Southey Roderick i. 1 Mad to wreak His vengeance for his violated child On Roderick's head. 1857 C. Kingsley Two Years Ago II. v. 200 I cannot sit here quietly, listening to the war-news. It makes me mad to be up and doing. 1923 H. L. Mencken Let. 22 Aug. in H. L. Mencken & S. Haardt Mencken & Sara (1987) 89 I am mad to do something on several southern themes of a social cast. 1987 ‘B. Vine’ Fatal Inversion 76 It was curiously sexual this feeling, exactly the way he had once or twice felt with a girl he was mad to make love to. c. Frequently used as the second element in adverbial noun compounds, as music-mad, poetry-mad, sex-mad, etc. ΚΠ a1750 L. Pilkington Mem. (1754) III. 59 I know you were once Bermudas mad; now I'll give you some of that Country Cheer; open that Drawer and reach me a flat Bottle you'll find there. 1753 J. Armstrong Taste 7 Some have run Maro- and some Milton-mad. 1760 H. Mann Let. 6 Dec. in H. Walpole Corr. (1960) XXI. 462 It is not the famous countess, though she too is still fan-mad, but her sister. 1789 C. Burney Gen. Hist. Music (ed. 2) I. Pref. p. xi A great genius, music-mad. 1802 S. T. Coleridge Let. 16 Nov. (1956) II. 468 The whole Kingdom is getting Ginger-mad. 1825 H. Wilson Mem. I. 41 One of her new admirers, who, being flute-mad, and a beautiful flute player, was always ready. 1847 T. H. Huxley Let. 24 Jan. in L. Huxley Life & Lett. T. H. Huxley (1900) I. 31 Lest you should imagine me scenery mad I will spare you any description. 1851 T. A. Buckley tr. Homer Iliad 249 Accursed Paris..woman-mad, seducer. 1928 R. Macaulay Keeping up Appearances vii. 62 If a woman went on that way about men you'd call her man-mad. 1943 E. M. Almedingen Frossia ii. 58 Look at all this promiscuity... They have all gone sex-mad. 1946 K. Tennant Lost Haven (1947) Prol. 8 All the family were horse-mad. 1974 ‘P. B. Yuill’ Bornless Keeper xiii. 129 Perhaps you can save her from a sex-mad rabbit and win her undying love. 1992 S. Sontag Volcano Lover i. ii. 25 Being volcano-mad was madder than being picture-mad. 6. (a) Of a person: beside oneself with anger; moved to uncontrollable rage; furious. (b) Angry, irate, cross. Also, in weakened sense: annoyed, exasperated (with †against, at, with, etc.). Now colloquial (chiefly North American) and British regional. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > anger > [adjective] irrec825 gramec893 wemodc897 wrothc950 bolghenc1000 gramelyc1000 hotOE on fireOE brathc1175 moodyc1175 to-bollenc1175 wrethfulc1175 wraw?c1225 agrameda1300 wrathfula1300 agremedc1300 hastivec1300 irousa1340 wretheda1340 aniredc1350 felonc1374 angryc1380 upreareda1382 jealous1382 crousea1400 grieveda1400 irefula1400 mada1400 teena1400 wraweda1400 wretthy14.. angryc1405 errevousa1420 wrothy1422 angereda1425 passionatec1425 fumous1430 tangylc1440 heavy1452 fire angry1490 wrothsomea1529 angerful?1533 wrothful?1534 wrath1535 provoked1538 warm1547 vibrant1575 chauffe1582 fuming1582 enfeloned1596 incensed1597 choleric1598 inflameda1600 raiseda1600 exasperate1601 angried1609 exasperated1611 dispassionate1635 bristlinga1639 peltish1648 sultry1671 on (also upon) the high ropes (also rope)1672 nangry1681 ugly1687 sorea1694 glimflashy1699 enraged1732 spunky1809 cholerous1822 kwaai1827 wrathy1828 angersome1834 outraged1836 irate1838 vex1843 raring1845 waxy1853 stiff1856 scotty1867 bristly1872 hot under the collar1879 black angry1894 spitfire1894 passionful1901 ignorant1913 hairy1914 snaky1919 steamed1923 uptight1934 broigus1937 lemony1941 ripped1941 pissed1943 crooked1945 teed off1955 ticked off1959 ripe1966 torqued1967 bummed1970 a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 17595 For-þi þaa iuus war full medd, þair sandes come again vnspedd. ?a1400 (a1338) R. Mannyng Chron. (Petyt) (1996) i. 606 Þis lady Venus was alle glad; þe toþer were for wrath mad. c1425 (?a1400) Arthur (Longleat 55) 234 Whan þis lettre was open & rad, Þe Bretons & all men were mad And wolde þe messager scle. 1539 Bible (Great) Psalms cii. 8 They that are mad vpon me, are sworne together agaynst me [similarly, 1611; the Hebrew word literally means ‘insane’]. 1577 M. Hanmer tr. Bp. Eusebius in Aunc. Eccl. Hist. v. i. 76 They which for familiaritie sake vsed moderation before, nowe were exceadingly moued and madd with vs. a1604 M. Hanmer Chron. Ireland 125 in J. Ware Two Hist. Ireland (1633) Roderic was mad, and in his rage, caused his pledges head..to be cut off. 1611 Bible (King James) Acts xxvi. 11 And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them euen vnto strange cities. View more context for this quotation 1622 J. Mabbe tr. M. Alemán Rogue ii. 155 Whereat the merchant was so mad, and so transported with passion, that he knew not what to say. 1706 tr. J. B. Morvan de Bellegarde Refl. upon Ridicule 358 You are mad to hear other's Works commended. ?1706 E. Hickeringill Priest-craft: 2nd Pt. viii. 77 That makes them so mad at me, when I touch the Craft by which they get their Wealth. 1766 D. Garrick Neck or Nothing i. ii. 15 He was damn'd mad, that he cou'd not be at the wedding. 1791 J. Learmont Poems Pastoral 160 At length the Outlers grew sae mad Against ilk Inler purse-proud blade. 1806 Simple Narr. II. 9 I'll pump out of her how she got the book;—how deuced mad she will be. 1847 F. Marryat Children of New Forest I. vii. 124 He thought..you would be so mad at the idea of this injustice. 1867 A. Trollope Last Chron. Barset II. xliv. 3 I am sometimes so mad with myself when I think over it all,—that I should like to blow my brains out. 1887 F. Francis Saddle & Mocassin 111 The more he studied it [sc. the bill] the madder he got. 1902 W. James Varieties Relig. Experience xi. 264 He can't ‘get mad’ at any of his alternatives; and the career of a man beset by such an all-round amiability is hopeless. 1925 E. Wallace King by Night viii. 32 Don't get fresh with that girl of mine... You just get mad at her. 1939 J. Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath 260 Goin' aroun' stirrin' up trouble. Gettin' folks mad. 1956 M. Duggan in C. K. Stead N.Z. Short Stories (1966) 2nd Ser. 90 Are you mad at me? Simpson asked. 1973 Black World June 57/1 Gloria mad at me three days now. 1992 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Feb. 167/1 He has hardly any friends and the ones he has beat him up because they get mad with him. 7. a. Of a person: lacking in restraint; (wildly) unconventional in demeanour or conduct; marked by irresponsible gaiety; violently exuberant, outrageous, chaotic. Now frequently of an action, disposition, etc. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > behaviour > other specific behaviour > [adjective] > extravagant mada1470 wild1515 extravagant1598 throughother1813 a1470 T. Malory Morte Darthur (Winch. Coll. 13) (1990) II. 693 Ye shall hyre the myrryeste knyght that ever ye spake wythall, and the maddyst talker. 1568 (a1500) Colkelbie Sow Prol. l. 50 in W. T. Ritchie Bannatyne MS (1930) IV. 281 Pardoun the fulich face of this mad metir. 1590 Tarltons Newes out of Purgatorie 2 One of those Familiares Lares..as Hob Thrust, Robin Goodfellow and such like spirites..famozed in every olde wives Chronicle for their mad merrye prankes. 1598 J. Marston Scourge of Villanie vii. F1^v Why how now currish mad Athenian? c1600 Return: 1st Pt. i. i, in Three Parnassus Plays (1949) 148 Thou seems a mad greeke, & I haue loude such ladds of metall as thou seems to be from mine infancie. 1605 W. Camden Remaines ii. 42 A mery mad maker as they call [poets] now, was he, which..made this for Iohn Calf. 1611 A. Whitaker Let. in A. Brown Genesis U.S. (1890) I. 498 As our men passed by one of their townes, there yssued out on the shoare a mad crewe dauncing like Anticks, or our Morris dancers. 1635 T. Heywood Philocothonista 44 To title a drunkard by, wee..strive to character him in a more mincing and modest phrase; as thus:—Hee is a good fellow, or A boone Companion, A mad Greeke, A true Trojan. 1655 Earl of Norwich Let. 12 June in E. Nicholas Papers (1892) II. 338 You will heare mad work shortly, for the Jesuit is at worke. a1715 Bp. G. Burnet Hist. Own Time (1724) I. 244 He..was engaged in a mad-ramble after pleasure, and minded no business. 1732 G. Berkeley Alciphron I. ii. x. 93 The mad sallies of Intemperance and Debauchery. 1777 F. Burney Jrnl. 7 Apr. in Early Jrnls. & Lett. (1990) II. 244 The sweet little thing was quite in mad spirits. 1785 W. Cowper Task iv. 163 Drink, and be mad then. 'Tis your country bids. Gloriously drunk obey th' important call. 1862 G. Meredith Marian iii, in Mod. Love 144 She is steadfast as a star, And yet the maddest maiden. 1873 ‘Ouida’ Pascarèl I. 69 They would play me all sorts of sweet little mad canzoni. 1883 Cent. Mag. Sept. 788/1 That mad whirlwind of shameless and senseless gayety. 1914 E. R. Burroughs Tarzan of Apes vii. 86 Tarzan..is, doubtless, the only human being who ever joined in the fierce, mad, intoxicating revel of the Dum-Dum. 1932 New Yorker 23 July 12/2 It is not your idea..of a mad night on pleasure-crazed Broadway. 1996 J. T. Hospital Oyster (1997) 159 The wild mad funnel of laughter that whooshed us along. b. Characterizing a temporary state of fear, panic, etc.: frenetic, unrestrained, extreme. ΚΠ 1834 T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus ii. iii, in Fraser's Mag. Feb. 185/1 A little dog, in mad terror, was rushing past; for some human imps had tied a tin kettle to its tail; thus did the agonised creature loud-jingling career through the whole length of the Burough [sic]. 1894 R. Kipling Jungle Bk. 158 The mad rush and blaze and hullaballoo of the last night's drive, when the elephants..flung themselves at the heavy posts only to be driven back by yells and flaring torches and volleys of blank cartridge. 1902 J. Conrad Heart of Darkness in Youth 62 Mad terror had scattered them, men, women, and children, through the bush, and they had never returned. 1988 Motoring News 9 Nov. 14/3 We..survived a mad panic when an unnamed person hadn't tightened a front wheel nut up and the wheel came off! 1998 Independent 27 Mar. 9 (heading) Scilly islanders in mad rush to grab ship's cargo. c. slang (originally U.S. in African-American usage). Used as a general term of approbation: (a) remarkable, appealing, exciting, wild; excellent, cool; (b) (in later use, as modifier, with stronger implications of extremity or abundance): unrestrained, total; copious, profuse; much.Originally associated with U.S. jazz music, the term enjoyed a revival in Britain and the United States in the 1990s, esp. among participants in the dance music and rave culture of the 1990s. ΘΚΠ the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > reputation > state of being noteworthy or remarkable > [adjective] specialc1325 notablec1390 oddc1400 notary1421 insignec1465 rial1487 noteworthy1552 signal1591 signal1591 remarkable1593 of note1596 memorated1631 distinguishable1720 nameable1780 markworthy1799 mad1941 pipperoo1945 ring-a-ding1960 pass-remarkable1974 the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > high or intense degree > [adjective] > very great or extreme > presenting characteristic in the utmost degree extreme1597 mad1941 1941 H. A. Smith Low Man on Totem Pole ix. 111 The best of all is the big, mad, red-hot, out-of-this-world date. 1944 D. Burley Orig. Handbk. Harlem Jive 15 That's mad, ole man; so mad it's glad. 1957 J. Kerouac On the Road ii. vii. 154 We spent a mad day in downtown New Orleans. 1970 C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 79 Mad, great, exciting. 1991 Source Dec. 60/2 Dancehall specialists Steely & Clevie remix the track and add mad bass for a heavy rockers edge. 1993 B. Cross It's not about Salary 281 There was no black or white thing, if you was dope, you was dope..writers, rappers breakdancers, if you was white and you was dope you could get mad respect. 1997 Dance & Arts Sept. 6/2 Can you imagine a Hip Hop concert on a duty-ass field with nothing but peeps on blankets, mad food, three stages, circus performances, [etc.]. 8. Fervent with poetic or divine inspiration. Now literary. ΚΠ 1601 B. Jonson Every Man in his Humor ii. iii. sig. E2v I shal loue Apollo, & the mad Thespian girles the better. View more context for this quotation 1603 T. Dekker 1603: Wonderfull Yeare Aiv Let Homer, Hesiod, Euripides, and some other mad Greekes with a band of Latines, lye like musket-shot in their way, when these Gothes and Getes, [sc. worthless rhymesters] set vpon you in your paper fortifications. 1687 J. Dryden Hind & Panther iii. 100 He found a leaf inscrib'd with sacred rime, Whose antique characters did well denote The Sibyl's hand of the Cumæan Grott: The mad Divineress had plainly writ, A time shou'd come. 1850 G. Soane Zarah i. ii. 15 Zarah has got into one of her wild freaks to-day, and talks more like a mad poet than a creature of frock and petticoats. 1993 R. Walser Running with Devil 165 Lead singer Axl Rose is a shaman, reviving the mad frenzy of Dionysus, Shiva, and the Romantic poets. 9. colloquial. [After Compounds 2a.] Of an animal, esp. a cow: suffering from spongiform encephalopathy. ΚΠ 1990 Sun 22 May 3/2 He put a sign in his window saying: ‘The only mad cow in this shop is my wife.’..Cocky Colin, 42, thought up the slogan to dispel customers' fears over BSE disease in cows. 1991 N.Y. Times 8 Oct. c. 1/4 One of the quirkiest mysteries of modern medicine—involving mad cows, stumbling sheep and dwarfs—will be one step closer to solution if a heterodox new theory proves true. 1996 New Statesman 26 July 7/1 Since no conscientious mother can afford to ignore the mad sheep scare, I begin my day with a root through the fridge. Phrases P1. like mad: (literally) in the manner of one who is mad; (hence) furiously, with excessive violence or enthusiasm; now often (colloquial) in weakened sense, as an intensifier: greatly, to a high degree. Also †like any mad, †for mad. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > manner of action > violent action or operation > violently [phrase] > with excessive violence or enthusiasm for mada1375 like mada1375 like a bandit1943 the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > violent behaviour > [phrase] > with fierce or furious violence as or like woodc1220 for woodc1275 wood1297 for mada1375 like mada1375 the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > high or intense degree > greatly or very much [phrase] > extremely like mada1375 with a mischief1538 (as) — as anything1542 with a vengeance1568 with a siserary1607 (to be pleased) to a feathera1616 in (the) extremea1616 with the vengeance1693 to a degree1740 like hell1776 like the devil1791 like winky1830 like billy-o1885 (like) seven shades of ——1919 like a bandit1943 on wheels1943 a1375 (c1350) William of Palerne (1867) 1761 Alisaundrine..mourned neiȝh for mad for meliors hire ladi. c1440 (a1400) Awntyrs Arthure (Thornton) 110 It marrede, it mournede, it moyssede for made. 1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement f. cc.lii^v/2 I go madde I go vp and downe lyke a madde body, je cours les rues.] 1567 G. Turberville Epitaphes, Epigrams f. 105 He sports to outward sight, but inward chafes like mad. 1653 Mercurius Democritus No. 51. 393 An unlucky Crack the other day crying Coals through the streets at 10d. the Bushell, the poor People flocking about him like mad. 1663 S. Pepys Diary 13 June (1971) IV. 182 Thence by coach with a mad coachman that drove like mad. 1732 H. Fielding Covent-Garden Trag. ii. xii. 30 My reeling Head! which akes like any mad. 1741 S. Richardson Pamela IV. xvii. 118 Several Harlequins, and other ludicrous Forms, that jump'd and ran about like mad. 1745 C. J. Hamilton Let. in Academy (1893) 18 Nov. 440/3 They were Shooting at y^e Standards Like Mad. 1824 Countess Granville Lett. (1894) I. 262 We are writing like mad for the post. 1893 W. Forbes-Mitchell Reminisc. Great Mutiny 101 We..heard our fellows cheering like mad. 1934 J. B. Priestley Eng. Journey iii. 55 They wanted Old Polly to dance, but she wouldn't..until they'd gone, and then she danced like mad. 1965 New Statesman 14 May 753/1 Do Royal tours really matter? They matter like mad to the British embassy staff in the country concerned. 1990 Sunday Express Mag. 21 Oct. 20/2 Fear is nothing compared with the discomfort...‘Your back aches like mad.’ P2. Proverbial phrases. †a. as mad as Ajax Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > anger > irritation > [adjective] annoyedc1330 crabbedc1480 provoked1538 chafing1539 nettledc1576 chafed1582 irritated1595 as mad as Ajax1598 aggravated1611 enchafeda1616 irritate1626 on or upon the fret1679 as mad as a wet hen1823 as mad as a meat axe1855 scotty1867 hacked1892 raggy1900 ratty1909 pipped1914 fucked-off1923 rubbed1927 eggy1935 broigus1937 salty1938 pissed1943 peed off1948 1598 W. Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost iv. iii. 6 By the Lord this Loue is as madd as Aiax, it kills Sheepe. View more context for this quotation 1607 G. Chapman Bussy D'Ambois iii. 40 Murther market folkes, quarrell with sheepe, And runne as mad as Aiax. 1732 T. Fuller Gnomologia 140 Love is as mad as Ajax; it kills Sheep, so it kills me. b. as mad as a brush (see brush n.² Additions). †c. as mad as a buck Obsolete. ΚΠ a1616 W. Shakespeare Comedy of Errors (1623) iii. i. 73 It would make a man mad as a Bucke to be so bought and sold. View more context for this quotation †d. as mad as a goose Obsolete. ΚΠ c1450 Alphabet of Tales (1904) I. 19 (MED) Þer fell a swyngyllyng in his hede þat he wex fonde with, & mad as a guse. e. as mad as a (March) hare (see hare n. 1b, March n.² Compounds 2). ΚΠ a1516 H. Medwall Godely Interlude Fulgens sig. Gii Ye by my trowth as made as an hare. 1529 T. More Supplyc. Soulys i. f. x^v As mad not as marche hare, but as a madde dogge. 1786 R. Burns Poems & Songs (1968) I. 63 It pits me ay as mad's a hare. 1902 R. H. Barbour Behind Line xiii. 131 ‘Sandy’ saw me grinning at him in class yesterday and got as mad as a March hare. 1974 W. Foley Child in Forest 56 Then, mad as a bunch of March hares, yelling and hooting at the top of our voices, we rushed as fast as our legs would carry us. f. as mad as a hatter [Origin uncertain. Perhaps with allusion to the effects of mercury poisoning formerly suffered by hat-makers as a result of the use of mercurous nitrate in the manufacture of felt hats. Compare later hatters' shakes n. at hatter n.² Compounds.] ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > [adjective] > insanity or madness > affected with woodc725 woodsekc890 giddyc1000 out of (by, from, of) wit or one's witc1000 witlessc1000 brainsickOE amadc1225 lunaticc1290 madc1330 sickc1340 brain-wooda1375 out of one's minda1387 frenetica1398 fonda1400 formada1400 unwisea1400 brainc1400 unwholec1400 alienate?a1425 brainless1434 distract of one's wits1470 madfula1475 furious1475 distract1481 fro oneself1483 beside oneself1490 beside one's patience1490 dementa1500 red-wood?1507 extraught1509 misminded1509 peevish1523 bedlam-ripe1525 straughta1529 fanatic1533 bedlama1535 daft1540 unsounda1547 stark raving (also staring) mad1548 distraughted1572 insane1575 acrazeda1577 past oneself1576 frenzy1577 poll-mad1577 out of one's senses1580 maddeda1586 frenetical1588 distempered1593 distraught1597 crazed1599 diswitted1599 idle-headed1599 lymphatical1603 extract1608 madling1608 distracteda1616 informala1616 far gone1616 crazy1617 March mada1625 non compos mentis1628 brain-crazed1632 demented1632 crack-brained1634 arreptitiousa1641 dementate1640 dementated1650 brain-crackeda1652 insaniated1652 exsensed1654 bedlam-witteda1657 lymphatic1656 mad-like1679 dementative1685 non compos1699 beside one's gravity1716 hyte1720 lymphated1727 out of one's head1733 maddened1735 swivel-eyed1758 wrong1765 brainsickly1770 fatuous1773 derangedc1790 alienated1793 shake-brained1793 crack-headed1796 flighty1802 wowf1802 doitrified1808 phrenesiac1814 bedlamite1815 mad-braineda1822 fey1823 bedlamitish1824 skire1825 beside one's wits1827 as mad as a hatter1829 crazied1842 off one's head1842 bemadded1850 loco1852 off one's nut1858 off his chump1864 unsane1867 meshuga1868 non-sane1868 loony1872 bee-headed1879 off one's onion1881 off one's base1882 (to go) off one's dot1883 locoed1885 screwy1887 off one's rocker1890 balmy or barmy on (or in) the crumpet1891 meshuggener1892 nutty1892 buggy1893 bughouse1894 off one's pannikin1894 ratty1895 off one's trolley1896 batchy1898 twisted1900 batsc1901 batty1903 dippy1903 bugs1904 dingy1904 up the (also a) pole1904 nut1906 nuts1908 nutty as a fruitcake1911 bugged1920 potty1920 cuckoo1923 nutsy1923 puggled1923 blah1924 détraqué1925 doolally1925 off one's rocket1925 puggle1925 mental1927 phooey1927 crackers1928 squirrelly1928 over the edge1929 round the bend1929 lakes1934 ding-a-ling1935 wacky1935 screwball1936 dingbats1937 Asiatic1938 parlatic1941 troppo1941 up the creek1941 screwed-up1943 bonkers1945 psychological1952 out to lunch1955 starkers1956 off (one's) squiff1960 round the twist1960 yampy1963 out of (also off) one's bird1966 out of one's skull1967 whacked out1969 batshit1971 woo-woo1971 nutso1973 out of (one's) gourd1977 wacko1977 off one's meds1986 1829 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. June 792 Tickler (aside to Shepherd.) He's raving. Shepherd (to Tickler.) Dementit. [sic] Odoherty (to both.) Mad as a hatter. Hand me a segar. 1837–40 T. C. Haliburton Clockmaker (1862) 109 Sister Sall..walked out of the room, as mad as a hatter. 1849 W. M. Thackeray Pendennis (1850) I. x. 92 We were..chaffing Derby Oaks—until he was as mad as a hatter. 1909 E. Pound Personae 20 Mad as a hatter but surely no Myope. 1956 M. Dickens Angel in Corner xi. 241 You probably think I'm as mad as a hatter. g. as mad as a hornet North American. ΚΠ 1848 Tioga (Wellsboro, Pa.) Eagle 12 Jan. 1/4 While old Darling, who was mad as a hornet, was gwine to have Doolittle arrested for niggar stealin, right off. 1919 H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. 80 In the familiar simile, as mad as a hornet, it [sc. the word mad] is used in the American sense. 1927 Amer. Speech 2 360 He was as mad as a hornet when he heard how the election went. †h. as mad as May butter ΚΠ a1625 J. Fletcher Noble Gentleman i. ii, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Dd3/2 Monsieur Shattillion's mad... Mad as May-butter, And which is more, mad for a wench. i. as mad as a meat axe (chiefly Australian and New Zealand). ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > anger > irritation > [adjective] annoyedc1330 crabbedc1480 provoked1538 chafing1539 nettledc1576 chafed1582 irritated1595 as mad as Ajax1598 aggravated1611 enchafeda1616 irritate1626 on or upon the fret1679 as mad as a wet hen1823 as mad as a meat axe1855 scotty1867 hacked1892 raggy1900 ratty1909 pipped1914 fucked-off1923 rubbed1927 eggy1935 broigus1937 salty1938 pissed1943 peed off1948 1855 T. C. Haliburton Nature & Human Nature I. iii. 85 I feel as mad as a meat axe. 1946 J. Fountain in Coast to Coast 1945 252 The cow's mad—mad as a meat axe! 1970 D. M. Davin Not here, not Now v. iii. 263 She's mad as a meataxe anyway about the whole idea. j. as mad as a (cut) snake Australian. ΚΠ 1917 A. L. Brewer 'Gator's Euchre 29 When a new-chum gets lost, why..does he lose his head?.. They run as mad as snakes. 1932 ‘W. Hatfield’ Ginger Murdoch 30 ‘But you're mad!’ said Mick, ‘mad as a cut snake!’ 1951 S. Mackenzie Dead Men Rising 203 ‘Mad as a cut snake,’ Johnson said admiringly, ‘and there's not a better feller in the whole camp.’ 1963 Moderna Språk 57 i. 10 As mad as a cut snake: ‘mad’ is used in the sense of ‘angry’, and the phrase means ‘extremely angry’. 1982 T. Winton Open Swimmer 23 He's as mad as a cut snake. k. as mad as a tup English regional. ΚΠ 1901 T. Ratcliffe in Notes & Queries Sept. 501/2 In Derbyshire..there is no commoner saying to express anger shown by any one than to say that he or she was ‘as mad as a tup’. †l. as mad as a weaver Obsolete. ΚΠ 1609 Euerie Woman in her Humor sig. B3 If he were as madde as a weauer. m. as mad as a wet hen ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > anger > irritation > [adjective] annoyedc1330 crabbedc1480 provoked1538 chafing1539 nettledc1576 chafed1582 irritated1595 as mad as Ajax1598 aggravated1611 enchafeda1616 irritate1626 on or upon the fret1679 as mad as a wet hen1823 as mad as a meat axe1855 scotty1867 hacked1892 raggy1900 ratty1909 pipped1914 fucked-off1923 rubbed1927 eggy1935 broigus1937 salty1938 pissed1943 peed off1948 1823 J. Doddridge Dialogue Backwoodsman & Dandy in Logan 42 Every body that was not ax'd was mad as a wet hen. 1902 W. N. Harben Abner Daniel 54 The Colonel is as mad as a wet hen about the whole thing. 1923 P. G. Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves xviii. 249 My uncle will be as mad as a wet hen when he finds out that he has been fooled. 1971 Wall St. Jrnl. 22 July 1/4 The chicken farmers of Quebec..are as mad as, well a wet hen. P3. to go (also †fall, run) mad a. literal.In later use to run mad is most commonly found in East African and West African English. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > be or become mad [verb (intransitive)] dwelec900 wedec900 awedeeOE starea1275 braidc1275 ravea1325 to be out of mindc1325 woodc1374 to lose one's mindc1380 madc1384 forgetc1385 to go out of one's minda1398 to wede (out) of, but wita1400 foolc1400 to go (also fall, run) mada1450 forcene1490 ragec1515 waltc1540 maddle?c1550 to go (also run, set) a-madding (or on madding)1565 pass of wita1616 to have a gad-bee in one's brain1682 madden1704 to go (also be) off at the nail1721 distract1768 craze1818 to get a rat1890 to need (to have) one's head examined (also checked, read)1896 (to have) bats in the belfryc1901 to have straws in one's hair1923 to take the bats1927 to go haywire1929 to go mental1930 to go troppo1941 to come apart1954 the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > drive mad [verb (transitive)] turn1372 mada1425 overthrow?a1425 to go (also fall, run) mada1450 deferc1480 craze1503 to face (a person) out ofc1530 dement1545 distemper1581 shake1594 distract1600 to go (also run, set) a-madding (or on madding)1600 unwita1616 insaniate?1623 embedlama1628 dementate1628 crack1631 unreason1643 bemad1655 ecstasya1657 overset1695 madden1720 maddle1775 insanify1809 derange1825 bemoon1866 send (someone) up the wall1951 a1450 Partonope of Blois (Univ. Coll. Oxf.) (1912) 7894 And in your servyse he come ne hade, He shuld not now have ronne madde. a1500 in R. H. Robbins Secular Lyrics 14th & 15th Cent. (1952) 153 Thys y goo made, for on hur face y darnot loke lest loue me scorne. a1522 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid (1957) ii. x. 65 Son, quha sa..ondantit ire has rasyt in thé? Quhy gois thou mad? a1556 N. Udall Ralph Roister Doister (?1566) iii. ii. sig. D.iij Lest ye for lesing of him perchaunce might runne mad. 1584 R. Greene Gwydonius f. 38^v He..feeleth such painfull passions, as he runneth mad. 1598 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 1 iii. i. 207 Nay, if you melt, then will she run mad. View more context for this quotation 1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear vii. 445 O foole I shall goe mad . View more context for this quotation 1654 R. Codrington tr. Sextus Aurelius Victor Coll. Lives Emperors in tr. Justinus Hist. 567 Being troubled in his Conscience he did fall mad. 1670 G. Havers tr. G. Leti Il Cardinalismo di Santa Chiesa ii. iii. 191 Seeing Nini preferr'd, [he] was ready to run mad. 1709 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 12 Nov. (1965) I. 18 You have not then received my letter? Well! I shall run mad. 1782 W. Cowper Poems I. 314 What! hang a man for going mad? Then farewell British freedom. a1804 W. Blake Vala i, in Compl. Writings (1972) 265 Thou wilt go mad with horror if thou dost Examine thus Every moment of my Secret hours. 1839 in Amer. Speech (1965) 40 130 O dear, I shall go mad, My husband is so crazy. 1861 D. G. Rossetti Early Ital. Poets ii. 220 A perversion of gospel teaching which had gained ground in his day to the extent of becoming a popular frenzy. People went literally mad upon it. 1894 ‘A. Hope’ Prisoner of Zenda x. 143 They might have believed that the King had run mad. 1915 W. S. Maugham Of Human Bondage xciv. 492 He felt he would go mad if he had to spend another night in London. 1956 W. Golding Pincher Martin xii. 188 I am going mad. There is lightning playing on the skirts of a wild sea. 1972 National Assembly Official Rep. (Republic of Kenya) 28 1211 Do you think the statement..that a person works for 24 hours, is right? In fact, if anybody did that he would run mad. 2001 N. Hornby How to be Good iii. 42 It could well be that I am going mad; or, on the other hand, that I am simply confused and unhappy. 2020 Sun (Nigeria) (Nexis) 31 Oct. My husband would do some things that would almost make me run mad. b. figurative. ΚΠ 1734 A. Pope Epist. to Arbuthnot 10 It is not Poetry, but Prose run mad. 1762 J. Wesley Jrnl. 6 Nov. in Extract of Jrnl. (1768) XII. 7 That manner of writing, in Prose run mad, I cordially dislike. 1845 C. Dickens Let. 4 Feb. (1977) IV. 261 This packet must go to Torlonia's before Rome goes mad—which will be soon after Mid-day. 1889 C. Smith Repentance Paul Wentworth III. ix. 133 His native land appeared to him to have run mad on the Welsh scare. 1901 G. B. Shaw Three Plays for Puritans Pref. p. xxix Besides, I have a technical objection to making sexual infatuation a tragic theme. Experience proves that it is only effective in the comic spirit..but..to worship it, deify it, and imply that it alone makes our lives worth living, is nothing but folly gone mad erotically. 1914 G. B. Shaw Parents & Children in Misalliance p. cii The sort of Rationalism which says to a child ‘You must suspend your judgment until you are old enough to choose your religion’ is Rationalism gone mad. 1923 L. W. Reese Wild Cherry 21 The weather has gone mad with white. 1949 T. Rattigan Playbill 56 The lighting for this scene has gone mad. 1988 D. Roberts Jean Stafford vii. 126 Stephens College in 1937 was actually a living parody of progressive educational theory—Deweyism gone mad and soft. c. to drive mad: see drive v. 24c. d. to go mad (about, for, over, etc.): to allow oneself to be carried away by enthusiasm or excitement. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > zeal or enthusiasm > be zealous for [verb (transitive)] to run after ——c1422 zeal1542 to throw one's heart (also soul, energy, etc.) into1807 to go mad (about, for, over, etc.)1850 to be shook on1888 to be hepped on1926 the mind > emotion > excitement > riotous excitement > make (oneself) riotously excited [verb (transitive)] to go mad (about, for, over, etc.)1850 to go (also drive) bananas1957 1850 R. W. Emerson Goethe in Representative Men vii. 261 The ambitious and mercenary bring their last new mumbo-jumbo, whether tariff, Texas, railroad, Romanism, mesmerism, or California; and..a multitude go mad about it. 1876 W. Besant & J. Rice Golden Butterfly II. iii. 48 Why should we not go mad for china? It is as sensible as going mad over rinking. 1936 G. B. Shaw Millionairess i, in Simpleton, Six, & Millionairess 153 The whole town went mad about the angry-eyed woman. It rained money in bucketsful. 1992 Pract. Fishkeeping July 98/3 I went mad and bought a 24″ glass tank with a crude external filter. Compounds C1. Parasynthetic. mad-blooded adj. ΚΠ 1856 W. Maginn Misc. Writings III. iii. 76 There stands by his side as mad-blooded a spirit as Tybalt himself, and Mercutio..takes up the abandoned quarrel. 1885 J. Runciman Skippers & Shellbacks 84 He was a mad blooded rip that cared for nothing. mad-humoured adj. ΚΠ 1665 S. Pepys Diary 6 Dec. (1972) VI. 321 Knipp, who is..the most excellent mad-humourd thing; and sings the noblest that ever I heard. mad-mooded adj. ΚΠ 1582 T. Watson Ἑκατομπαθία: Passionate Cent. Loue lii. G2^v Mad mooded Loue vsurping Reasons place. mad-pated adj. ΚΠ 1771 Hist. Sir William Harrington II. 215 Your mad-pated Julia. 1814 C. A. Elton tr. Horace in C. A. Elton Specim. Classic Poets II. 205 ‘Whither would you shove, Mad-pated fool?’ some waspish wight Bawls, with a curse. 1848 G. P. R. James Gowrie x. 95 But come, Gowrie, your mad-pated fellow has told you doubtless that you have black neighbours near. C2. a. mad cow disease n. colloquial (chiefly British) bovine spongiform encephalopathy, a progressive, fatal disease of the central nervous system of cattle, prominent signs of which are unsteadiness of gait and behavioural abnormalities. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > ill health > animal disease or disorder > disorders of cattle > [noun] > other disorders of cattle murrainc1450 gall1577 gargyse1577 sprenges1577 wisp1577 closh1587 milting1587 moltlong1587 hammer1600 mallet1600 scurvy1604 wither1648 speed1704 nostril dropping1708 bladdera1722 heartsick1725 throstling1726 striking1776 feather-cling1799 hollow-horn1805 weed1811 blood striking1815 the slows1822 toad-bit1825 coast-fever1840 horn-distemper1843 rat's tail1847 whethering1847 milk fever1860 milt-sickness1867 pearl tumour1872 actinomycosis1877 pearl disease1877 rat-tail1880 lumpy jaw1891 niatism1895 cripple1897 rumenitis1897 Rhodesian fever1903 reticulitis1905 barbone1907 contagious abortion1910 trichomoniasis1915 shipping fever1932 New Forest disease1954 bovine spongiform encephalopathy1987 BSE1987 mad cow disease1988 East Coast fever2009 1988 Sunday Tel. 6 Nov. 3/1 Tests on the second bull are expected to confirm that it, too, was the victim of..the incurable ‘mad cow disease’ which riddles the brain with holes and can drive docile animals berserk. 1989 Observer 17 Sept. 4/8 Mad cow disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has an incubation period of up to four years. 1990 Australian 17 Jan. 6/3 The British government yesterday denied United States military bases had banned British meat because of ‘mad cow’ disease. 1996 Private Eye 5 Apr. 12/1 In the West Country it is common knowledge that ‘mad cow disease’ was present at epidemic levels long before it was ‘discovered’ by Maffia [sc. Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food] vets in Kent in 1985. b. mad —— disease n. (a) humorous (in ad hoc uses), an imaginary affliction of a specified animal, person, etc., esp. one causing unusual or erratic behaviour; (b) colloquial spongiform encephalopathy of the named species. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > disorders of nervous system > [noun] > disorders of brain > other brain disorders brain damage1864 mind-blindness1888 satellitosis1906 syringobulbia1908 Alzheimer's disease1911 kernicterus1912 pseudotumour1914 brain death1928 punch-drunk1928 Sturge–Weber syndrome1935 Alzheimer1938 Creutzfeldt–Jakob1939 Alzheimer1940 Schilder's disease1940 hypsarrhythmia1952 kuru1957 laughing death1957 Minamata disease1957 myelinolysis1959 spongiform encephalopathy1960 CJD1975 old-timer's disease1983 mad —— disease1990 1990 Independent (Nexis) 27 Jan. 21 The better than expected current account figures prompted a small outbreak of mad bull disease in the stock market yesterday. 1991 Independent 1 Nov. 7/1 A government scientist has conceded for the first time that ‘mad cat’ disease—the feline form of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)—is likely to have been caused by contaminated cat food. 1993 Bookseller (BNC) 8 Jan. 44 Added to that have been the cuts in funding; the attack on the ‘book health’ of schools has been considerable. Mad Curriculum Disease is taking over. 1993 Times (Nexis) 9 Mar. Personally I don't buy french apples (Why, I don't remember); I don't buy cat-food marked ‘beef’ (mad cat disease); and I am wary of eggs (Mrs Currie). 1996 New Statesman 26 July 7/3 These days, when any maître d' of the Conservative Party starts extolling a government-vetted menu, I am uncomfortably reminded of the perils of mad minister disease. 1997 Times-Picayune (New Orleans) (Nexis) 2 Oct. f3 Mad-squirrel disease?.. University of Kentucky researchers believe they may have found a link between the consumption of squirrel brains..and a lethal brain ailment in humans. C3. mad hatter n. [with allusion to the eccentric Hatter who hosts the tea party in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), and to the phrase as mad as a hatter at Phrases 2f] a highly eccentric or crazy character (frequently in mad hatter's tea party). ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > slight madness > crankiness or eccentricity > person fantastical1589 fantastic1598 earwig brain1599 extravagant1627 fanatic1644 energumen1660 original1675 toy-pate1702 gig1777 quiz1780 quoz?1780 rum touch1800 crotcheteer1815 pistol1828 eccentric1832 case1833 originalist1835 cure1856 crotchet-monger1874 curiosity1874 crank1881 crackpot1883 faddist1883 schwärmer1884 hard case1892 finger1899 mad hatter1905 nut1908 numéro1924 screwball1933 wack1938 fruitcake1942 odd bod1942 oddball1943 ghoster1953 raver1959 kook1960 flake1968 woo-woo1972 zonky1972 wacko1977 headbanger1981 the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > slight madness > crankiness or eccentricity > state of affairs mad hatter's tea party1974 1905 S. R. Crockett Sir Toady Crusoe viii. 59 Of all the mad hatters, Toady Lion,..you do take the bean. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 28 Aug. 14/2 What possible interest can Spain have in a mad-hatter attempt to subjugate the Riff district? 1955 Times 20 May 9/2 I shudder to think of the..consequences of this mad hatter's export subsidy scheme. 1974 Times 9 Nov. 12/6 The world of catering sometimes has the air of a mad hatter's tea party, as chefs and proprietors move from one place to the next. 1990 Scuba Times Mar. 32/3 I watched the mad hatter of the sea, a large puffer fish, hovering over the top of our tiny world, flitting his tiny fins. mad itch n. Veterinary Medicine pseudorabies (Aujeszky's disease), esp. in ruminants and other species in which intense pruritus is a prominent feature (see pseudorabies n. 2). ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > ill health > animal disease or disorder > disorders of animals generally > [noun] > bacterial or viral heartwater1880 pseudotuberculosis1888 coccidiosis1892 sarcosporidiosis1893 agalaxia1894 agalactia1897 actinobacillosis1903 Aujeszky's disease1906 necrobacillosis1907 pseudorabies1912 flu1920 tick-borne fever1921 leptospirosis1926 mad itch1931 Rift Valley fever1931 theileriasis1944 vibriosis1951 arenovirus1970 arenavirus1971 1931 Jrnl. Exper. Med. 54 244 The clinical picture of ‘mad itch’ is very suggestive of pseudorabies. 1938 Vet. Rec. 50 745/2 ‘Mad itch’ is a term which was given to the disease, as occurring in cattle, by farmers in North America, owing to the symptom of intense pruritus noted in affected animals. 1995 Vet. Rec. 136 555 The 29 affected sheep developed either the classical ‘mad itch’ signs associated with Aujeszky's disease in ruminants or signs of encephalitis. 1998 Britannica Online (Version 98.2) Pseudorabies, also called Aujeszky's disease or mad itch, viral disease mainly of cattle and swine... A cow shows infection by rubbing against posts and by licking and biting the affected areas. mad mick n. [rhyming slang] originally and chiefly Australian a pick, a pickaxe (see also quot. 1935). ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > equipment > digging or lifting tools > [noun] > pick mattockeOE pickaxe1256 billc1325 pikec1330 pickc1350 peak1454 picker1481 peck1485 beele1671 pix1708 tramp-pick1813 jackass pick1874 mad mick1919 1919 Aussie: Austral. Soldiers' Mag. Jan. 8/1 We were issued with..‘Mad Micks’, as the Diggers call..picks. 1935 A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 74/1 Mad mick, a pick (prison). 1953 T. A. G. Hungerford Riverslake 224 I swung a mad-mick there for eighteen months during the depression. 1973 F. Huelin Keep Moving 78 Well, I won't buy drinks f'r any bloody ganger, just f'r a chance to swing a mad mick. mad minute n. Army slang a minute of rapid rifle-fire or frenzied bayonet-practice. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > drill or training > [noun] > weapon-training > bayonet practice mad minute1916 1916 J. N. Hall Kitchener's Mob 28 We were skilled soldiers of the proud and illustrious order known as 'England's Mad-Minute men'. 1931 J. Brophy & E. Partridge Songs & Slang Brit. Soldier: 1914–1918 (ed. 3) 331 Mad Minute, a newspaper phrase for our men's rapid fire during the Retreat from Mons... During the War the name was applied to the frenzied minute charging down the assault course, bayoneting..dummies representing the enemy. 1945 C. H. B. Pridham Superiority of Fire vi. 57 By 1914, many men in each regiment could exceed even twenty rounds in the ‘mad minute’. 1964 C. Falls in S. Nowell-Smith Edwardian Eng. xiv. 537 Reservists and young soldiers alike could shoot steadily and accurately at a relatively slow rate for long periods, or in emergency fire what they called their ‘mad minute’. 1971 Newsweek 11 Jan. 31 A ‘mad minute’—one minute of small-arms firing around the entire perimeter of the base in case enemy troops had infiltrated the area. 2004 E. T. Wise Eleven Bravo 57 During a mad minute everyone on the LZ opens up with whatever weapon he is using and fires into the woodline outside the perimeter, as fast as he can load and reload. mad money n. colloquial money for use in an emergency or in any unexpected eventuality; money that is surplus to one's normal requirements and which may be spent on a whim. ΘΚΠ society > trade and finance > money > funds or pecuniary resources > [noun] > set apart for a purpose > for emergencies contingency fund1901 mad money1922 1922 Lima (Ohio) News & Times-Democrat 2 Mar. 1/3 The 1922 girl always ‘squirrels’ or hides, a few dollar bills known as ‘mad’ money. 1933 E. H. Partridge Slang To-day & Yesterday v. 285 Mad money, return fare, it being very generally believed by the New Zealand troops..that every English girl infallibly carried her return fare in case her soldier friend became mad, i.e., acted with an excessive freedom of manner. 1943 J. Steinbeck in N.Y. Herald Tribune 2 Sept. 21/2 He has a nest egg or mad money. 1962 L. Deighton Ipcress File x. 61 I think he grabs an S. 1. now and again when he needs some mad money. 1970 ‘D. Shannon’ Unexpected Death (1971) ix. 135 I haven't even a dime of mad money with me, hope I don't need it. 1972 O. Sela Bearer Plot i. 15 I reached for the wad of notes Keith kept as mad money. 1984 A. Maupin Babycakes xiv. 58 ‘Just a little..you know..extra cash.’ ‘Mad money.’ 1993 N.Y. Times 7 Nov. iv. 17/3 Deborah Barton..took money out of her own pocket to buy six of her students school uniforms. The Pinewood Elementary P.T.A...gives each teacher $100 for classroom ‘mad money’. mad mullah n. (also with capital initials) derogatory (originally British) an Islamic religious leader, often a fundamentalist, regarded as dangerous, extremist, or unpredictable; also in extended use; frequently (with the) applied to a particular individual.spec. with reference to Muhammad Abdullah Hassan of northern Somalia who fought against the British in the early part of the 20th cent. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > belief > expressed belief, opinion > extreme opinion, dogmatism > [noun] > person holding dogmatizer1600 dogmatic1650 dogmatist1654 ultra1823 doctrinaire1831 Doctrinarian1836 mad mullah1838 doctrinist1840 ultraist1842 stalwart1899 fundamentalist1913 pontificator1934 Islamicist1963 society > faith > sect > non-Christian religions > Islam > [noun] > person > fanatical assassin1340 ghazi1753 mad mullah1838 Razakar1948 1838 E. Spencer Trav. Western Caucasus II. xii. 177 The Sultan was denounced as an infidel giaour, and one or two mad moullahs had the audacity to lecture him publicly. 1897 Times 28 July 7/1 News was received that the ‘mad mullah’, a priest who is apparently well known locally, had gathered about him a number of armed men with the view of raising a jehad. 1902 Internat. Year Bk. 628 In 1901 Great Britain, assisted by Abyssinia, carried on military operations against insurgent Somalis led by the ‘Mad Mullah’, Hajji Mohammed Ibn Abdallah. 1909 D. Lloyd George in Daily Chron. 4 Dec. That is how the Bill was thrown out, not by the wise men, not by the reflecting men of the Unionist Party, but by its Mad Mullahs. 1984 Washington Post 14 June 23/1 The Ayatollah Khomeini is regularly described as the ‘mad mullah’. 2008 D. Koontz Odd Hours 335 ‘He made a great many valuable contacts.’ ‘You mean dictators, thugs, and mad mullahs.’ † mad nightshade n. [after post-classical Latin solanum manicum, Middle French solanum furieux] Obsolete deadly nightshade, Atropa belladonna. ΘΚΠ the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Solanaceae (nightshade and allies) > [noun] morela1400 nightshadea1400 petty morel?a1425 hound's-berryc1485 micklewort1531 manicon1543 garden nightshade1576 dulcamara1578 mad nightshade1578 raging nightshade1578 sleeping nightshade1578 solanum1578 tree nightshade1597 black nightshade1607 moonshade1626 mumme tree1629 winter cherry1629 blue bindweeda1637 canker berry1651 shrub-nightshade1666 poison berry1672 nightshade1733 woody nightshade1796 Sodom apple1808 African nightshade1839 solanal1846 felon-wood1861 shoo-fly plant1949 1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball 447 The other is called Solanum Manicum, that is to say Mad or Raging Night~shade. 1600 R. Surflet tr. C. Estienne & J. Liébault Maison Rustique ii. xliv. 290 Diuers plants which haue the same vertue, as mad nightshade. Mad Parliament n. [after post-classical Latin insane Parliamentum (see quot. 1274)] English History (a name given to) the meeting of the barons at Oxford in 1258, which passed the ‘Provisions of Oxford’. ΘΚΠ society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > deliberative, legislative, or administrative assembly > types of deliberative or legislative assembly > [noun] > meeting of barons (Oxford, 1258) Mad Parliament1565 1274 in T. Stapleton Liber de Antiquis Legibus (1846) 37 Hoc anno fuit illud insane Parliamentum apud Oxoniam.] 1565 J. Stow Summarie Eng. Chrons. f. 90 The kyng..helde a parliament at Oxenford, which was after called the madde parliament. 1875 W. Stubbs Constit. Hist. II. xiv. §176. 74 On the 11th of June [1258], at Oxford, the Mad Parliament, as it was called by Henry's partisans, assembled. 1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 492/2 He played a conspicuous part in the reign of Henry III., notably in the Mad Parliament of 1258, and died at Amiens in 1260. 2012 R. Shepherd Westminster viii. 64 This ‘Mad Parliament’, as it was later nicknamed by royalists, vested power in a council of 15 barons and bishops, and appointed Hugh Bigod to the revived post of justiciar, or chief minister. mad scene n. Theatre a scene depicting the insanity of one of the characters in a play, opera, etc. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > a play > [noun] > scene > type of scene or act monologuec1550 monology1608 night scene1683 mad scene1741 drop-scene1815 recognition scene1838 carpenter's-scene1860 scène à faire1884 mob scene1890 sex scene1915 curtain1928 1741 S. Richardson Pamela IV. xiv. 84 Upon this Orestes runs mad, and it is said to be the finest mad Scene in any English Play. 1808 Monthly Pantheon 1 294/2 The mad scene kept pace with the various excellencies that preceded it. 1905 E. M. Forster Where Angels fear to Tread vi. 206 The climax was reached in the mad scene. 1988 M. Charney Hamlet's Fictions i. iii. 41 Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene..is also a mad scene, in which she speaks in the..broken discourse we have come to expect from Elizabethan madwomen. 2009 R. Harris-Warrick in A. Fauser & M. Everist Music, Theater, & Cultural Transfer ix. 203 Only La gazette de France appeared to recognize that the mad scene was a ‘frightening’ challenge for a singer. mad scientist n. a scientist who is mad or eccentric, esp. so as to be dangerous or evil: a stock figure of melodramatic horror stories; frequently attributive. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > slight madness > crankiness or eccentricity > person > specific mad scientist1893 flat-earth-man1908 flat-earther1934 1893 Newark (Ohio) Daily Advocate 11 July 6/3 Nerving myself for the blow, I felled the mad scientist dead at my feet. 1908 ‘R. McDonald’ (title) Mad scientist: a tale of the future. 1940 ‘N. Blake’ Malice in Wonderland iii. xviii. 282 A sort of mad-scientist motive for the whole series of outrages. 1963 ‘G. Bagby’ Murder's Little Helper (1964) iv. 36 The whole idea smacked too much of some mad-scientist fable out of a comic strip. 1972 B. Turner Solden's Women ix. 82 He would have passed for the mad scientist in one of those films which star giant insects. 1999 N.Y. Times 7 Jan. d 4/2 The characters are..all wildly charismatic and telegenic:..artist, street thug, office girl, space alien, budding mad scientist. madtom n. any of various small North American freshwater catfishes of the genus Noturus (family Ictaluridae), which can inflict wounds with the poisonous spines in their pectoral fins. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > fish > class Osteichthyes or Teleostomi > order Siluriformes (catfish) > [noun] > member of family Ictaluridae bullhead1674 horn-pout1798 horned pout1837 minister1839 channel cat1847 flannel-mouth1882 stone-cat1882 madtom1896 1896 D. S. Jordan & B. W. Evermann Check-list Fishes & Fish-like Vertebr. N. & Middle Amer. 234 Schilbeodes insignis..Mad Tom. Pennsylvania to South Carolina. 1947 B. W. Dalrymple Panfish 290 In the Stonecat and Madtoms, this adipose fin is long and low, and usually connected in a continuous line with the tail, or caudal fin. 1996 J. Updike In Beauty of Lilies 134 This industry has drained the local forests of oak bark and ceased to pour its acids and chromium salts and dyes into the Avon, which gradually recovered its clear color and its fish, its trout and perch and those bright little spiny, vicious catfish called madtoms. Derivatives ˈmad-like adj. and adv. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > [adjective] > insanity or madness > affected with woodc725 woodsekc890 giddyc1000 out of (by, from, of) wit or one's witc1000 witlessc1000 brainsickOE amadc1225 lunaticc1290 madc1330 sickc1340 brain-wooda1375 out of one's minda1387 frenetica1398 fonda1400 formada1400 unwisea1400 brainc1400 unwholec1400 alienate?a1425 brainless1434 distract of one's wits1470 madfula1475 furious1475 distract1481 fro oneself1483 beside oneself1490 beside one's patience1490 dementa1500 red-wood?1507 extraught1509 misminded1509 peevish1523 bedlam-ripe1525 straughta1529 fanatic1533 bedlama1535 daft1540 unsounda1547 stark raving (also staring) mad1548 distraughted1572 insane1575 acrazeda1577 past oneself1576 frenzy1577 poll-mad1577 out of one's senses1580 maddeda1586 frenetical1588 distempered1593 distraught1597 crazed1599 diswitted1599 idle-headed1599 lymphatical1603 extract1608 madling1608 distracteda1616 informala1616 far gone1616 crazy1617 March mada1625 non compos mentis1628 brain-crazed1632 demented1632 crack-brained1634 arreptitiousa1641 dementate1640 dementated1650 brain-crackeda1652 insaniated1652 exsensed1654 bedlam-witteda1657 lymphatic1656 mad-like1679 dementative1685 non compos1699 beside one's gravity1716 hyte1720 lymphated1727 out of one's head1733 maddened1735 swivel-eyed1758 wrong1765 brainsickly1770 fatuous1773 derangedc1790 alienated1793 shake-brained1793 crack-headed1796 flighty1802 wowf1802 doitrified1808 phrenesiac1814 bedlamite1815 mad-braineda1822 fey1823 bedlamitish1824 skire1825 beside one's wits1827 as mad as a hatter1829 crazied1842 off one's head1842 bemadded1850 loco1852 off one's nut1858 off his chump1864 unsane1867 meshuga1868 non-sane1868 loony1872 bee-headed1879 off one's onion1881 off one's base1882 (to go) off one's dot1883 locoed1885 screwy1887 off one's rocker1890 balmy or barmy on (or in) the crumpet1891 meshuggener1892 nutty1892 buggy1893 bughouse1894 off one's pannikin1894 ratty1895 off one's trolley1896 batchy1898 twisted1900 batsc1901 batty1903 dippy1903 bugs1904 dingy1904 up the (also a) pole1904 nut1906 nuts1908 nutty as a fruitcake1911 bugged1920 potty1920 cuckoo1923 nutsy1923 puggled1923 blah1924 détraqué1925 doolally1925 off one's rocket1925 puggle1925 mental1927 phooey1927 crackers1928 squirrelly1928 over the edge1929 round the bend1929 lakes1934 ding-a-ling1935 wacky1935 screwball1936 dingbats1937 Asiatic1938 parlatic1941 troppo1941 up the creek1941 screwed-up1943 bonkers1945 psychological1952 out to lunch1955 starkers1956 off (one's) squiff1960 round the twist1960 yampy1963 out of (also off) one's bird1966 out of one's skull1967 whacked out1969 batshit1971 woo-woo1971 nutso1973 out of (one's) gourd1977 wacko1977 off one's meds1986 1679 J. Carkesse Lucida Intervalla 51 He's resolv'd at once to rid the State, Of this Poetick, Wanton, Mad-like Tribe. 1816 W. Scott Antiquary I. vi. 139 ‘Did you ever hear such an old tup-headed ass?’ said Oldbuck, briefly apostrophizing Lovel; ‘but I must not let him go in this mad-like way neither.’ 1887 P. McNeill Blawearie 144 The mad-like act would never have been heard of. 1945 L. Saxon et al. Gumbo Ya-ya (Federal Writers' Project) xiv. 299 He heared my grandma breathin' mad-like right inside, jest waitin' for him. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2000; most recently modified version published online June 2022). madv. Brit. /mad/, U.S. /mæd/ Forms: see mad adj. Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: mad adj. Etymology: < mad adj. †1. a. intransitive. To be or to become mad; to act like a madman, rage, behave furiously. Obsolete (archaic in later use). ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > be or become mad [verb (intransitive)] dwelec900 wedec900 awedeeOE starea1275 braidc1275 ravea1325 to be out of mindc1325 woodc1374 to lose one's mindc1380 madc1384 forgetc1385 to go out of one's minda1398 to wede (out) of, but wita1400 foolc1400 to go (also fall, run) mada1450 forcene1490 ragec1515 waltc1540 maddle?c1550 to go (also run, set) a-madding (or on madding)1565 pass of wita1616 to have a gad-bee in one's brain1682 madden1704 to go (also be) off at the nail1721 distract1768 craze1818 to get a rat1890 to need (to have) one's head examined (also checked, read)1896 (to have) bats in the belfryc1901 to have straws in one's hair1923 to take the bats1927 to go haywire1929 to go mental1930 to go troppo1941 to come apart1954 c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Deeds xxvi. 24 Festus with greet vois seyde, Poul, thou maddist, or wexist wood. c1390 G. Chaucer Miller's Tale 3559 Suffiseth thee, but if thy wittes madde, To han as greet a grace as Noe hadde. a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 18186 (MED) In þi deiing all thynges dred, þe sternes in þair mihtes medd. a1425 (?a1400) G. Chaucer Romaunt Rose (Hunterian) 1072 Ne trowe not that I lye or madde. Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 319 Maddyn or dotyn: Desipio. Maddyn, or waxen woode: Insanio, furio. a1450 (c1412) T. Hoccleve De Regimine Principum (Harl. 4866) (1897) 930 I..muse so, that vn-to lite I madde. a1530 T. Lupset Treat. Charitie (1533) 23 I maye loue for my sensuall luste, as when..I madde or dote vppon women. 1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement f. cc.lxxxvi I madde, I waxe or become mad, je enraige. I holde my lyfe on it the felowe maddeth. 1574 E. Hellowes tr. A. de Guevara Familiar Epist. 503 He brawleth and maddeth with the maids. 1600 P. Holland tr. Livy Rom. Hist. xxvi. xiii. 593 Wild and savage beasts..madded..with blind rage and woodnesse against one. 1873 M. Arnold Lit. & Dogma v. 144 The unclean spirits..came raging and madding before him. b. intransitive. To become infatuated. With after, upon. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > foolishness, folly > besottedness, infatuation > be foolish, dote [verb (intransitive)] fonc1425 fond1530 mad1594 1594 T. Kyd tr. R. Garnier Cornelia i. A2 A martiall people madding after Armes. 1624 Bp. F. White Replie to Iesuit Fishers Answere 555 The practise of your people..madding vpon the merits of Saints, and contemning the merits of Christ..is intollerable. 1726 D. Defoe Polit. Hist. Devil i. viii. 105 He [sc. the Devil] certainly set her [sc. Eve's] Head a madding after Deism, and to be made a Goddess. c. intransitive. Phrase to go (also run) madding. Cf. madding n. Obsolete. ΚΠ 1595 G. Peele Old Wiues Tale sig. B3 See where benelya my betrothed loue, Runs madding all inrag'd about the woods. 1621 T. W. tr. S. Goulart Wise Vieillard 25 Ouer violent passions of the minde..ouerwhelme the soule,..making it to goe gadding and madding heere and there to and fro. 1650 J. Howell tr. A. Giraffi Exact Hist. Late Revol. Naples i. 79 Going thus arming daily more and more, and madding up and down the streets. 1685 E. Pococke Comm. Hosea iv. 222/1 A..mad-headed, unruly heifer, that..runs wantonly madding about. 2. transitive. To make mad; to madden, make insane; †to make foolish (obsolete); †to bewilder, stupefy, daze (obsolete); to infuriate, enrage. Now chiefly U.S. colloquial: to exasperate. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > drive mad [verb (transitive)] turn1372 mada1425 overthrow?a1425 to go (also fall, run) mada1450 deferc1480 craze1503 to face (a person) out ofc1530 dement1545 distemper1581 shake1594 distract1600 to go (also run, set) a-madding (or on madding)1600 unwita1616 insaniate?1623 embedlama1628 dementate1628 crack1631 unreason1643 bemad1655 ecstasya1657 overset1695 madden1720 maddle1775 insanify1809 derange1825 bemoon1866 send (someone) up the wall1951 the mind > attention and judgement > inattention > mental wandering > confuse, bewilder [verb (transitive)] bewhapec1320 mara1350 blunder?a1400 mada1425 to turn a person's brainc1440 astonish1530 maskc1540 dare1547 bemud1599 bedazea1605 dizzy1604 bemist1609 muddify1647 lose1649 bafflea1657 bewildera1680 bother?1718 bemuse1734 muddlea1748 flurrya1757 muzz1786 muzzle1796 flusker1841 haze1858 bemuddle1862 jitter1932 giggle- the mind > emotion > anger > [verb (transitive)] > make angry wrethec900 abelgheeOE abaeileOE teenOE i-wrathec1075 wratha1200 awratha1250 gramec1275 forthcalla1300 excitea1340 grieve1362 movea1382 achafea1400 craba1400 angerc1400 mada1425 provokec1425 forwrecchec1450 wrothc1450 arage1470 incensea1513 puff1526 angry1530 despite1530 exasperate1534 exasper1545 stunt1583 pepper1599 enfever1647 nanger1675 to put or set up the back1728 roil1742 outrage1818 to put a person's monkey up1833 to get one's back up1840 to bring one's nap up1843 rouse1843 to get a person's shirt out1844 heat1855 to steam up1860 to get one's rag out1862 steam1922 to burn up1923 to flip out1964 a1425 (c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Deeds viii. 11 Thei leueden hym, for long tyme he hadde maddid hem with his witche craftis. c1475 (c1399) Mum & Sothsegger (Cambr. Ll.4.14) (1936) i. 63 And þat maddid þi men as þei nede muste; For wo þey ne wuste to whom for to pleyne. c1475 (c1399) Mum & Sothsegger (Cambr. Ll.4.14) (1936) ii. 132 With many derke mystis þat maddid her eyne. c1540 (?a1400) Gest Historiale Destr. Troy 8061 So full are þo faire fild of dessait, And men for to mad is most þere dessyre. 1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. iv. f. 125 The deuell hath with horrible bewitchyng madded their myndes. 1593 T. Nashe Christs Teares f. 22 Nothing so much doth macerate and mad mee. 1600 P. Holland tr. Livy Rom. Hist. xxviii. xv. 679 The Elephants also affrighted and madded..ran from the wings. 1621 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy ii. iii. vii. 425 He plaid on his drumme, and by that meanes madded her more. 1682 T. Southerne Loyal Brother iv. i. 37 O Hell! it mads my reason but to think on't. 1810 G. Crabbe Borough viii. 114 Again! By Heav'n, it mads me. 1850 J. S. Blackie tr. Æschylus Lyrical Dramas I. 22 Sin..Mads the ill-counsell'd heart. 1863 J. Weiss Life T. Parker I. 191 You have madded Parker and in this way he shews his spite. 1873 ‘Josiah Allen's Wife’ My Opinions & Betsey Bobbet's 249 At the same time it madded some of the Republicans. 1893 ‘O. Thanet’ Stories Western Town 31 I madded him first; I was a fool. 1916 H. L. Wilson Somewhere in Red Gap vi. 268 I think to find him all madded up and mortified; but he's strangely cheerful for one who has suffered. 1924 W. M. Raine Troubled Waters vi. 59 O' course, it ain't that any of them's afraid to mad that crazy gunman, Tait. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2000; most recently modified version published online June 2022). madadv. Brit. /mad/, U.S. /mæd/ Forms: Middle English– mad, 1500s madde. Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: mad adj. Etymology: < mad adj. Compare madly adv. †1. In a strange or unusual manner. Obsolete. rare. ΚΠ c1400 (?c1380) Pearl 1166 Hit payed hym not þat I so flonc Ouer meruelous mereȝ, so mad arayde. 2. a. Furiously, with excessive violence or enthusiasm; to the point of madness. Now usually in weakened sense, as an intensifier: greatly, excessively, extremely, very. Now regional and colloquial (esp. in African-American usage).Recorded earliest in compounds. ΘΚΠ the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > high or intense degree > [adverb] stronglyeOE felec950 strongeOE highlyOE highOE greatlya1200 stourlya1225 greata1325 dreec1330 deeplya1400 mightya1400 dreichlyc1400 mighty?a1425 sorec1440 mainlyc1450 greatumly1456 madc1487 profoundly1489 stronglya1492 muchwhata1513 shrewlya1529 heapa1547 vengeance?1548 sorely1562 smartlyc1580 mightly1582 mightily1587 violently1601 intensively1604 almightily1612 violent1629 seriously1643 intensely1646 importunately1660 shrewdly1664 gey1686 sadly1738 plenty1775 vitally1787 substantively1795 badly1813 far1814 heavily1819 serious1825 measurably1834 dearly1843 bally1939 majorly1955 sizzlingly1956 majorly1978 fecking1983 c1487 J. Skelton tr. Diodorus Siculus Bibliotheca Historica iv. 353 Dronkenes..maketh men to be somme mery dronken and somme mad dronken. 1589 J. Rider Bibliotheca Scholastica 896 Madde angrie, or raging madde, sævus, furiosus. 1614 T. Lodge tr. J. Lipsius Life Seneca ix, in tr. Seneca Wks. sig. d5^v This Prince waxed mad red with anger. 1632 J. Hayward tr. G. F. Biondi Eromena v. 142 Whose Prince mad angry for being discovered, assayling with a sudden furie the Granadan Galley, easily tooke her. 1648 T. Gage Eng.-Amer. xix. 144 If they can get any drink that will make them mad drunk..they never leave off. 1653 R. Baxter Christian Concord 32 I have neighbours that go mad-drunk about the streets. 1871 Routledge's Every Boy's Ann. 33 He was mad drunk, and did not know what he was doing. 1880 W. H. Patterson Gloss. Words Antrim & Down 66 Mad angry, very angry; raging. 1895 R. Kipling in Pall Mall Gaz. 6 June 3/1 When the steers are mad afraid. 1931 ‘F. O'Connor’ Guests of Nation 18 It was all mad lonely, with only a bit of lantern between ourselves and the pitch-blackness. 1946 K. Tennant Lost Haven (1947) ii. 30 Jamaica, mad angry and breathing heavily.., was no tourist to yelp about the beauties of the night. 1965 in Dict. Newfoundland Eng. (1982) 318/2 It's snowing mad. 1994 New York 10 Oct. 37 When they first bring me [to prison], man I was mad scared. Mad scared. 1996 Big Issue 26 Feb. 4/3 ‘Her neck's mad swollen Doc,’ Gar says, holding back tears. b. mad in love: fervently or passionately in love. Now colloquial. ΚΠ c1500 in H. A. Person Cambr. Middle Eng. Lyrics (1953) 14 Lady of pite..haue rewthe of me that ys most maddest In loue. 1615 T. Tomkis Albumazar i. ii. sig. B2^v I seeke thy aide, not thy crosse counsell, I am mad in loue with Flauia, and must haue her. 1723 P. Aubin Life Charlotta Du Pont xxii. 272 This young Nobleman, who was mad in love with her, continued frequently to visit her. 1887 W. Carleton Farm Legends 52 He'd a heart mad in love with the girl of his choice, Who made him alternately mope and rejoice. 1960 M. Spark Bachelors x. 179 She's mad in love with that little weed Patrick Seton. 1992 C. Harrod-Eagles Reckoning (BNC) (1993) 245 Don't you think Harry's nice? I do—and I can tell you that he's mad in love with you. Compounds C1. (In sense 2a.) mad-blazing adj. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > properties of materials > temperature > heat > burning > fire or flame > [adjective] > of the nature of or resembling flame flamya1586 flammeous1664 mad-blazing1837 1837 T. Carlyle French Revol. III. v. vii. 337 Mad-blazing with flame of all imaginable tints. † mad-hardiness n. Obsolete rare ΚΠ 1534 R. Whittington tr. Cicero Thre Bks. Tullyes Offyces i. sig. D.4* Of the hye pride of herte whiche is in reproche, and maye be called madhardynesse. † mad-hardy adj. Obsolete rare ΚΠ 1534 R. Whittington tr. Cicero Thre Bks. Tullyes Offyces i. sig. E.4 Madhardy men of our cyte of Rome. 1783 J. Ledyard Jrnl. Capt. Cook's Last Voy. 85 We spent the day in sweeping for our anchor which we finally recovered by the exertions of a mad-hardy Tar. mad-hungry adj. ΘΚΠ the world > food and drink > food > consumption of food or drink > appetite > hunger > [adjective] > hungry hungryc950 hungering971 hollow1362 eagera1475 empty?1490 ahungrya1500 sharp-set1540 greedlya1546 anhungry1578 starveling1578 belly-pinched1608 mad-hungry1608 jejunea1620 sharp-bent1675 sharp1678 nithered1691 peckish1714 stomach-tight1718 yap1768 yaupish1789 picksome1847 1608 G. Chapman Conspiracie Duke of Byron iv. G2^v Such mad-hungrie men, as well may eate Hote coles of fire. 1964 in Dict. Newfoundland Eng. (1982) 318/2 After he died the dogs got mad hungry, an' they turned to an' they eat him. mad-merry adj. rare ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > pleasure > merriment > [adjective] > excessively over-blitheeOE mad-merry1600 1600 A. Munday et al. First Pt. True Hist. Sir I. Old-castle sig. C4 Ye old mad mery Constable, art thou aduis'de of that. 1950 R. Graves Occupation: Writer 49 Type humour will continue with this mad-merry civilization to confirm changes of fashion in dress and dancing and politics. † mad-proud adj. Obsolete rare ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > pride > [adjective] > extremely or excessively proud overproudOE mad-proudc1450 Luciferine1543 Luciferousc1554 Luciferian?1570 top-proud1623 fastuose1674 as pleased (also proud, etc.) as Punch1796 as proud as Lucifer1839 c1450 in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 605/15 Produculus, madprud. C2. mad keen adj. originally Scottish very keen, wildly enthusiastic. ΚΠ 1923 G. Watson Roxburghshire Word-bk. 205 He's mad-keen o' fitba'. 1949 A. Christie Crooked House xvi. 126 She's mad keen on this detecting stuff. 1974 L. Lamb Man in Mist xiii. 88 Derek Boots was not exactly the type to join us here... I was not so mad keen on him. 1995 Farmers Weekly 31 Mar. 88/1 There's no lack of new techniques to confuse all but mad-keen practitioners. This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, March 2000; most recently modified version published online March 2022). > as lemmas MAD MAD n. magnetic anomaly (or airborne) detector (or detection). ΘΚΠ the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electronics > electronic devices or components > electronic instruments > [noun] MAD1946 1946 Radar: Summary Rep. & Harp Project (U.S. National Defense Res. Comm., Div. 14) 142/1 MAD, magnetic airborne detector for submarines under water. 1952 Coronet May 78/1 Scientists..thought, a compasslike magnetic device could be made to respond to even as small a body of metal as a submarine... U.S. Navy engineers tried dangling the tiny magnetic element on the end of a hundred-foot cable, through which electrical impulses traveled to a recording instrument in the plane. It worked, and MAD (magnetic air-borne detector) was soon helping our Navy send U-boats to the bottom. 1968 A. Hine Magn. Compasses & Magnetometers xi. 308 The purpose of M.A.D. is to find small irregularities in the general pattern of the Earth's magnetic field, which are associated with ferro-magnetic deposits of rock and oil-bearing strata. 1990 Take Off No. 119. 3314/4 Using a device something like a hyper-sensitive compass, known as a magnetic anomaly detector, or MAD, it is possible to sense the presence of that local disturbance. extracted from Mn. MAD MAD n. mutual (also mutually) assured destruction. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > war > war as profession or skill > [noun] > strategy > specific forward defence1960 mutual assured destruction1968 MAD1969 mutually assured destruction1969 exit strategy1973 dual key1979 Star Wars1983 S.D.I.1984 1969 Summer Cougar (Univ. of Houston) 10 July 2/2 Whether either or both sides deploys a thin or thick ABM will not significantly alter the present standoff of mutually assured destruction (MAD) and mutually assured vulnerability (especially of populations). 1971 N.Y. Times 24 May 31/4 We and the Soviets achieve a MAD posture by means of long-range missiles and bombers armed with thermonuclear weapons. 1987 Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev. 81 717 Several analyses of MAD conclude that the state with the greatest resolve in this contest of resolve will prevail. 1996 M. K. Blakely Red, White, & oh so Blue 101 We were encouraged to think of ourselves as the Good Society even while entering the opposite reality with the Soviet Union: we embarked on MAD, ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’. extracted from Mn. < n.¹1573n.²1729adj.c1275v.c1384adv.c1400 as lemmas
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† madn.1

madn.2

madadj.

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madv.

madadv.

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> as lemmas

† madn.¹

madn.²