craze

English

Alternative forms

• crase, craise, craize (dialectal)

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English crasen (“to crush, break, break to pieces, shatter, craze”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old Norse *krasa (“to shatter”), ultimately imitative.

Cognate with Danish krase (“to crack, crackle”), Swedish krasa (“to crack, crackle”), Norwegian krasa (“to shatter, crush”), Icelandic krasa (“to crackle”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɹeɪz/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪz

Noun

craze (plural crazes)

1. (archaic) craziness; insanity.
2. A strong habitual desire or fancy.
3. A temporary passion or infatuation, as for some new amusement, pursuit, or fashion; a fad
   • 2012, Alan Titchmarsh, The Complete Countryman: A User's Guide to Traditional Skills and Lost Crafts

     Winemaking was a huge craze in the 1970s, when affordable package holidays to the continent gave people a taste for winedrinking, but the recession made it hard to afford off-license prices back home.

4. (ceramics) A crack in the glaze or enamel caused by exposure of the pottery to great or irregular heat.

Derived terms

• becraze
• crazy

Translations

temporary passion

• Bulgarian: мания (bg) f (manija)
• Finnish: villitys (fi)
• French: engouement (fr)
• German: Fimmel (de) m
• Hebrew: שיגעון m (shiga'on)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: hōkeka
• Portuguese: febre (pt) f
• Russian: ма́ния (ru) f (mánija)
• Swedish: fluga (sv) c, dille (sv) n, mani (sv) c

crack in ceramics

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Verb

1. (archaic) To weaken; to impair; to render decrepit.
   • (Can we date this quote by John Milton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

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

2. To derange the intellect of; to render insane.
   • (Can we date this quote by Tillotson and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

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

   • (Can we date this quote by William Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     Grief hath crazed my wits.

3. To be crazed, or to act or appear as one that is crazed; to rave; to become insane.
   • 1820, John Keats, “Robin Hood”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 135:

     And if Robin should be cast / Sudden from his turfed grave, / And if Marian should have / Once again her forest days, / She would weep and he would craze: [...]

4. (transitive, intransitive, archaic) To break into pieces; to crush; to grind to powder. See crase.
   • (Can we date this quote by John Milton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     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

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

to derange the intellect of; to render insane

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Bulgarian: подлудявам (bg) (podludjavam)

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

• Italian: impazzire (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

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

to crack, as the glazing of porcelain or pottery

• Polish: popękać
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Anagrams

• Rezac