Mad Definition

măd
madded, madder, maddest, madding, mads
adjective
madder, maddest
Mentally ill; insane.
Webster's New World
Wildly excited or disorderly; frenzied; frantic.
Mad with fear.
Webster's New World
Characteristic of mental derangement.
Mad laughter.
American Heritage
Angry or provoked.
Webster's New World
Showing or resulting from lack of reason; foolish and rash; unwise.
A mad scheme.
Webster's New World
verb
madded, madding, mads
To make or become mad; madden.
American Heritage
To madden.
Webster's New World

(now colloquial US) To madden, to anger, to frustrate.

Wiktionary
adverb
Extremely; very.
This place is mad cool.
American Heritage

(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.
Wiktionary
abbreviation
Mutually assured destruction.
American Heritage
noun
An angry or sullen mood or fit.
Webster's New World
The theory that the possession of equally devastating nuclear weapons by superpowers will deter each from attacking another or its allies.
Webster's New World
idiom
like mad
  • Wildly; impetuously:

    drove like mad.

  • To an intense degree or great extent:

    worked like mad; snowing like mad.

American Heritage
mad as a hatter
  • Crazy; mentally deranged.
American Heritage
have a mad on
  • to be angry
Webster's New World
mad as a hatter
  • completely crazy
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Mad

Adjective

Base Form:
mad
Comparative:
madder
Superlative:
maddest

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Mad

Origin of Mad

  • Middle English medd, madd, from Old English gemÇ£d (“enraged"), from gemād (“silly, mad"), from Proto-Germanic *maidaz (compare Old High German gimeit (“foolish, crazy"), Gothic gamaiþs (gamaiþs, “crippled")), past participle of *maidijanÄ… (“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")).

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English mentally deranged, rabid, angry from Old English gemǣdde past participle of gemǣdan to derange mentally, madden from gemād mentally deranged mei-1 in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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