frantic Hear it!

frantic Definition

fran·tic (frantik)

adjective

  1. wild with anger, pain, worry, etc.; frenzied
  2. marked by frenzy; resulting from wild emotion
  3. Archaic insane

Etymology: ME frantik, frenetik: see phrenetic

frantic Related Forms

fran·ti·cally adverb or Rarefran·ticly

frantic Synonyms

frantic

modif.

frenzied, agitated, overwrought, distraught, distracted, beside oneself, wild, hysterical, desperate, frenetic, upset, excited, overexcited, worked up, in a state, delirious, out of one's mind, mad, berserk, wild-eyed, furious, raging, unhinged, unstrung, unglued*, at the end of one's rope*; see also excited.

Antonyms calm, composed, subdued.

frantic Usage Examples

Adjective complement with noun phrase

  • keep: Affairs, rivalries, & enmities keep the pace frantic, along with dropped lines, missed cues, and lost contact lenses.
  • get: Back to this weekend, let's hope it says safe - sometimes it gets a bit frantic out there, doesn't it?

Modifies a noun

  • scramble: In the frantic scramble for new routes that ensued, nearly every buttress received attention.
  • pace: All Manx players suffered from the frantic pace on playing on the show courts for the first time.
  • finale: There was more to follow in a frantic finale to the half with skipper Young doubling his side's tally in injury time.
  • dash: However, the Floral Dance succeeds in having the last say as the music makes its last frantic dash to the finishing line.
  • craze: The book describes the frantic craze for jigsaw puzzles during the 1920s online jigsaw puzzle and 1930s.
  • rush: To pass this procession would be death, a frantic blind rush down an opposing lane.

Modifying Another Word

  • increasingly: Getting increasingly frantic, she asked the parlor maid, Sarah Cox.
  • nearly: Out with him on a tour of some of the branch monasteries I was nearly frantic to get my stinking robes washed.
  • almost: This plus the continued, almost frantic pace of reform in the NHS is the cause of the crises now emerging across the NHS.
  • rather: Some of the later levels do get rather frantic.
  • pretty: Sunday, July 18, 2004 [ permalink ] Hogwarts here I come Well it's been a pretty frantic few weeks.
  • sometimes: From catching Roach, Bream and Chub from a sluggish Bristol Avon to the sometimes frantic sport encountered on the modern-day commercial waters.

Infinitive complement

find: Frantic to find her, Lily makes friends with two young American soldiers, who promise to help her.

Used with adjective complement

  • become: Our God is at work in the world; therefore we need not become frantic.
  • grow: Guarding its silken sack from the flames, it grew frantic.
  • get: Some of the later levels do get rather frantic.
  • go: Richard had a little whistle to imitate Spotted Owlet, and the birds went frantic; giving us fantastic views.

Preposition: with

worry: They were put in contact with Green in June 1983, by which time they were frantic with worry.

Browse dictionary entries near frantic

  1. franseria
  2. frankpledge
  3. frankness
  4. frankly
  5. franklinite
  6. Franklin stove
  7. franklin
  8. Frankish
  9. frankincense
  10. frankfurter
  1. Franz Josef I
  2. Franz Josef Land
  3. frap
  4. frappé
  5. Frascati
  6. Fraser
  7. frass
  8. frat
  9. frater
  10. fraternal