frantic
/ˈfrantɪk
/adjective
1Distraught with fear, anxiety, or other emotion: she was frantic with worry...
- Many customers eagerly signed up because their pets had been made frantic with fear by the noise of fireworks.
- This time, however, he failed to return and his mother is frantic with worry about his safety.
- I have been speaking to his dad and he and his wife are just frantic with worry, they can't sleep or eat.
Synonyms
panic-stricken, panic-struck, panicky, beside oneself, at one's wits' end, berserk, distraught, overwrought, worked up, agitated, distressed;
frenzied, wild, frenetic, fraught, fevered, feverish, hysterical, mad, crazed, out of control, uncontrolled, unhinged, out of one's mind, maniacal, demented, desperate
informal in a state, in a tizzy/tizz, wound up, het up, in a flap, in a cold sweat, tearing one's hair out
British informal having kittens, in a flat spin, swivel-eyed
1.1Conducted in a hurried, excited, and disorganized way: frantic attempts to resuscitate the girl...
- In the latter stages they attempted a frantic counter-attack but the ball play was feeble.
- She was quickly discovered after a frantic search, bleeding and shocked.
- The men noticed the boy was missing and after a frantic search they discovered his body in the river.
Derivatives
franticness
/ noun ...- Through the rain hammering on all the men she could hardly see faces, but there was a feeling of franticness and fear.
- There is, with such activities, a sort of build-in franticness and distraction, even a low-level near-panic.
- This franticness makes them appear really desperate and sometimes ruins the connection.
Origin
Late Middle English frentik, 'insane, violently mad', from Old French frenetique (see frenetic).
frenetic from Late Middle English:
This comes via French and Latin from Greek phrenitikos, from phrenitis ‘delirium’, and was initially used to mean ‘insane’. Originally frantic (Late Middle English) was merely an alternative form of the word. Frenzy (Middle English) is from the same root.