brainsickadj.n.

OE Aldhelm Glosses (Brussels 1650) in L. Goossens Old Eng. Glosses of MS Brussels, Royal Libr. 1650 (1974) 441 Freneticus : awoffod, brægenseoc.

?c1450 tr. Bk. Knight of La Tour Landry (1906) 20 (MED) Kepe you that ye take no striff with..foles that are brayne sik, for it is gret perile.

1549 H. Latimer 2nd Serm. before Kynges Maiestie 3rd Serm. sig. Gi What ye brain sycke fooles..do ye beleue hym?

1591 R. Greene Maidens Dreame sig. C The brainsicke and illiterate surmisers, That like to Saints would holy be in lookes.

a1605 (c1422) T. Hoccleve Complaint (Durh.) l. 129 in Minor Poems (1970) i. 100 Forthe stirte I as a Roo..all brain-seke.

1648 Hunting of Fox 25 Some head-strong brain-sick Sectaries.

1680 J. Dryden Kind Keeper i. i. 8 He drank thy health five times, supernaculum, to my Son Brain-sick.

1736 J. Swift Legion Club in Irish Misc. 23 A queer Brain-sick Brute, they call a Peer.

1795 C. Bayley Questions for Children 12 Epiphanius, at the latter end of the fourth Century, tells us that ‘the Aerians were the most brain-sick heretics that ever were.’

1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 591 This man, at once unprincipled and brainsick.

1875 Times 3 Aug. 3/5 The novel is unfinished, but it leaves Lionel, who had long been brainsick, partially insane.

1901 F. Norris Octopus 565 But his constitutional irresoluteness obstructed his path continually; brain-sick, weak of will, emotional, timid, even, he temporised, procrastinated, brooded.

1998 Salmon, Trout & Sea-trout Feb. 52/3 Perhaps I am, but there again, are not all salmon anglers a touch brain-sick?

1571 A. Golding tr. J. Calvin Psalmes of Dauid with Comm. (viii. 3) With braynsik madnesse.

1606 W. Birnie Blame of Kirk-buriall Ded. sig. B2 Brain-sicke superstitions, instanced especially in their manifold sepulchromany.

1645 Mercurius Britanicus No. 107. 945 Cannot a man speak a little to the purpose, but out of brain-sick jealousie he must be railed at?

1763 H. Venn Compl. Duty of Man 232 You can never..be secured from..mistaking some creature of a brain-sick imagination for the work of the Spirit of God.

1791 W. Cowper tr. Homer Odyssey in Iliad & Odyssey II. iv. 616 The brainsick fury seiz'd him.

1825 M. S. Novello Day in Stowe Gardens Introd. p. iii A gothic castle, a lonely heath, a gloomy forest, or stupendous precipice, are not without the lurking dread of robber, spectre, or brain-sick fancies.

1863 M. E. Braddon Aurora Floyd I. x. 224 Slangy technicalities of the turf, had interlarded the poor girl's brain-sick babble.

1921 C. N. Webb in Literary Digest 24 Sept. 32/1 Like a madman laughs in his brainsick glee.

a1972 J. Berryman Form in Delusions (1973) 42 O torso hurled high in great planes from town down on confulsing town, brainsick applause thick to sick ear, through sixteen panicked nights a trail of tilted bottles.

2009 Times of Central Asia (Nexis) 4 May At first, Kyrgyz journalists willingly accepted invitations of the activist and covered all of his sometimes brainsick actions.

1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. i. iv. 120 Some Brain-sicks liue thear now-adaies.

1641 R. Carter Schismatick Stigmatized (title page) Fault-finders, Quarrell-pickers, and Corner-creepers; with all the rabble of Brain-sicks, who are enemies to Old Englands Peace.