craze

§English

§Alternative forms

• crase, craise, craize (dialectal)

§Etymology

From Middle English crasen (“to crush, break, break to pieces, shatter, craze”), from Old Norse *krasa (“to shatter”). Cognate with Danish krase (“to crack, crackle”), Swedish krasa (“to crack, crackle”), Norwegian krasa (“to shatter, crush”), Icelandic krasa (“to crackle”).

§Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪz

§Noun

craze (plural crazes)

1. Craziness; insanity.
2. A strong habitual desire or fancy; a crotchet.
3. A temporary passion or infatuation, as for same new amusement, pursuit, or fashion; as, the bric-a-brac craze; the aesthetic craze.

§Translations

temporary passion

• Bulgarian: мания (bg) f (manija)
• Finnish: villitys
• French: engouement (fr)

• Hebrew: שיגעון m (shiga'on)
• Russian: мания (ru) f (mánija)
• Swedish: fluga (sv) c, dille (sv) n, mani (sv) c

§Verb

craze (third-person singular simple present crazes, present participle crazing, simple past and past participle crazed)

1. To weaken; to impair; to render decrepit.
   • Milton

     Till length of years, / And sedentary numbness, craze my limbs.

2. To derange the intellect of; to render insane.
   • Tillotson

     any man […] that is crazed and out of his wits

   • Shakespeare

     Grief hath crazed my wits.

3. To be crazed, or to act or appear as one that is crazed; to rave; to become insane.
   • Keats

     She would weep and he would craze.

4. (transitive, intransitive, archaic) To break into pieces; to crush; to grind to powder. See crase.
   • Milton

     God, looking forth, will trouble all his host, / And craze their chariot wheels.

5. (transitive, intransitive) To crack, as the glazing of porcelain or pottery.

§Translations

to weaken; to impair; to render decrepit

to derange the intellect of; to render insane

to be crazed, or to act or appear as one that is crazed; to rave; to become insane

• Italian: impazzire (it)

to break into pieces; to crush; to grind to powder — see crase

to crack, as the glazing of porcelain or pottery

• Polish: popękać