infuriate

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin infuriatus (“enraged”), past participle of infurio (“to enrage”), from Latin furia (“rage, fury, frenzy”), perhaps via Italian infuriato.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfjʊəɹieɪt/ (verb), IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfjʊəɹɪət/ (adjective)

• Audio (US):

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Verb

1. To make furious or mad with anger; to fill with fury.

   Synonyms: enrage, madden

   • 1615, Edwin Sandys, Sacred Hymns, Consisting of fifti select psalms of David and others, paraphrastically turned into English verse, London, “Psalm 2,” p. 2,^[1]

     What graceles fears, strange hates, may Nations so affright,

     Infuriate so; gainst God with mad attempts to fight?

   • 1796, Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Prospect of a Regicide Peace, London: J. Owen, Letter 2, p. 105,^[2]

     They tore the deputation of the Clergy to pieces by their infuriated declamations and invectives, before they lacerated their bodies by their massacres.

   • 1839, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, Chapter 11,^[3]

     He bent over Oliver, and repeated the inquiry; but finding him really incapable of understanding the question; and knowing that his not replying would only infuriate the magistrate the more, and add to the severity of his sentence; he hazarded a guess.

   • 1937, George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier, Penguin, 1962, Part 2, Chapter 9, p. 131,^[4]

     I had […] no notion that the working class were human beings. […] I could agonise over their sufferings, but I still hated them and despised them when I came anywhere near them. I was still revolted by their accents and infuriated by their habitual rudeness.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:enrage

Derived terms

• infuriated
• infuriating
• infuriation

Translations

to make furious or mad with anger

• Bulgarian: разгневявам (bg) (razgnevjavam), вбесявам (bg) (vbesjavam)
• Catalan: enfuriar (ca), enfurir (ca)
• Czech: rozzuřit
• French: rendre furieux, enrager (fr)
• German: wütend machen, zur Weißglut bringen
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: εξοργίζω (el) (exorgízo)
• Maori: whakariri
• Russian: злить (ru) (zlitʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: razbjèsniti (sh) pf, razbješnjívati (sh) impf, ražéstiti (sh) pf, ražešćívati (sh) impf
• Spanish: enfurecer (es)

Adjective

infuriate (comparative more infuriate, superlative most infuriate)

1. (now rare) Filled with, characterized by or expressing fury.

   Synonyms: enraged, furious, raging

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 6, lines 482-490,^[5]

     These [materials] in thir dark Nativitie the Deep

     Shall yeild us, pregnant with infernal flame,

     Which into hallow Engins long and round

     Thick-rammd, at th’ other bore with touch of fire

     Dilated and infuriate shall send forth

     From far with thundring noise among our foes

     Such implements of mischief as shall dash

     To pieces, and orewhelm whatever stands

     Adverse,

   • 1735, James Thomson, The Four Seasons, and Other Poems, London: J. Millan & A. Millar, “Autumn,” lines 392-396, p. 26,^[6]

     […] the steady tyrant man,

     Who with the thoughtless insolence of power

     Inflam’d, beyond the most infuriate rage

     Of the worst monster that e'er howl'd the waste,

     For sport alone takes up the cruel tract,

   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 32,^[7]

     […] she housed and sheltered Mrs. Posky, who fled from her bungalow one night, pursued by her infuriate husband, wielding his second brandy bottle […]

   • 1929, Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel, New York: Modern Library, Chapter 20, p. 280,^[8]

     With an infuriate scream the dead awakened.

   • 1951, William Styron, Lie Down in Darkness, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, Chapter 2, p. 51,^[9]

     Until Peyton was born, bleak doubt assailed him. He looked at his wife’s body with suspicion and his own with infuriate guilt.

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Italian

Verb

infuriate

1. second-person plural present indicative of infuriare
2. second-person plural imperative of infuriare
3. second-person plural present subjunctive of infuriare
4. feminine plural of infuriato