mad

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English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Middle English medd, madd, from Old English gemǣd (“enraged”), from gemād (“silly, mad”), from Proto-Germanic *maidaz (compare Old High German gimeit (“foolish, crazy”), Gothic gamaiþs (gamaiþs, “crippled”)), past participle of *maidijaną (“to cripple, injure”), from Proto-Indo-European *mei (“to change”) (compare Old Irish máel (“bald, dull”), Old Lithuanian ap-maitinti (“to wound”), Sanskrit [script?] (méthati, “he hurts, comes to blows”)).

Adjective[edit]

mad (comparative madder, superlative maddest)

  1. Insane; crazy, mentally deranged.
    You want to spend $1000 on a pair of shoes? Are you mad?
    He's got this mad idea that he's irresistible to women.
    • Shakespeare
      I have heard my grandsire say full oft, / Extremity of griefs would make men mad.
  2. (chiefly US; UK dated + regional) Angry, annoyed.
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 6, Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man.
    Are you mad at me?
  3. Wildly confused or excited.
    to be mad with terror, lust, or hatred
    • Bible, Jer. 1. 88
      It is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.
    • 1787: The Fair Syrian, R. Bage, p.314
      My brother, quiet as a cat, seems perfectly contented with the internal feelings of his felicity. The Marquis, mad as a kitten, is all in motion to express it, from tongue to heel.
  4. Extremely foolish or unwise; irrational; imprudent.
  5. (colloquial, usually with for or about) Extremely enthusiastic about; crazy about; infatuated with; overcome with desire for.
    Aren't you just mad for that red dress?
  6. (of animals) Abnormally ferocious or furious; or, rabid, affected with rabies.
    a mad dog
  7. (slang, chiefly Northeastern US) Intensifier, signifies an abundance or high quality of a thing; very, much or many.
    I gotta give you mad props for scoring us those tickets.   Their lead guitarist has mad skills.   There's always mad girls at those parties.
  8. (of a compass needle) Having impaired polarity.

Usage notes[edit]

In the United States and Canada, mad generally implies the angry sense (though this is considered informal; literarily it is more likely to mean "insane"). In Commonwealth countries other than Canada, mad typically implies the insane or crazy sense.

Synonyms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Adverb[edit]

mad (not comparable)

  1. (slang, New England, New York and UK, dialect) Intensifier; to a large degree; extremely; exceedingly; very; unbelievably.
    He was driving mad slow.
    It's mad hot today.
    He seems mad keen on her.

Synonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Verb[edit]

mad (third-person singular simple present mads, present participle madding, simple past and past participle madded)

  1. (now colloquial US) To madden, to anger, to frustrate.
    • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King Richard the Second, Act V Scene 5:
      This musick mads me, let it sound no more.
    • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, I.2.4.iv:
      He that mads others, if he were so humoured, would be as mad himself, as much grieved and tormented [...].

Anagrams[edit]

Breton[edit]

Adjective[edit]

mad

  1. good

Noun[edit]

mad

  1. goodness

Danish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Norse matr.

Noun[edit]

mad c (singular definite maden, not used in plural form)

  1. food

Noun[edit]

mad c (singular definite madden, plural indefinite madder)

  1. sandwich, bread and butter

Inflection[edit]

Inflection of mad
common
gender		 Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative mad madden madder madderne
genitive mads maddens madders maddernes

Lojban[edit]

Rafsi[edit]

mad

  1. rafsi of marde.

Old Irish[edit]

Verb[edit]

mad

  1. third-person singular present subjunctive of masu
  2. third-person singular past subjunctive of masu

Palauan[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *mata, from Proto-Austronesian *maCa.

Noun[edit]

mad

  1. (anatomy) eye (organ)

Welsh[edit]

Adjective[edit]

mad

  1. good
  2. lucky, fortunate
  3. suitable

Noun[edit]

mad m

  1. goodness
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