- Obs. intermittent insanity, formerly supposed to change in intensity with the phases of the moon
- mental unsoundness; insanity
- pl. -·cies great folly or a foolish act
Origin of lunacy
luna(tic) + -cy
noun
The definition of lunacy is the state of being insane or wild foolishness.
An example of lunacy is college students and intense partying over Spring break.
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lunacy
Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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lunacy
noun
pl. lu·na·cies- a. Mental derangement; craziness: “The Indians thought his obsession with giant bones a sign of harmless lunacy” ( David Rains Wallace )b. Archaic Intermittent mental derangement attributed to the changing phases of the moon.
- a. Great or wild foolishness: a policy that proved to be a piece of economic lunacy.b. A wildly foolish or irrational act.
Origin of lunacy
From lunaticTHE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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"Lunacy." YourDictionary. LoveToKnow. www.yourdictionary.com/Lunacy.
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Lunacy. (n.d.). In YourDictionary. Retrieved from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Lunacy
Noun
(countable and uncountable, plural lunacies)
- (of a person or group of people) The state of being mad, insanity
- a cyclical mental disease, apparently linked to the lunar phases
- insanity implying legal irresponsibility.
- Something deeply misguided.
Origin
From lunatic + -cy.
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
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"Lunacy." YourDictionary. LoveToKnow. www.yourdictionary.com/Lunacy.
APA Style
Lunacy. (n.d.). In YourDictionary. Retrieved from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Lunacy
Sentence Examples
- The committee of a lunatic, with the sanction of the judge in lunacy, may refer disputes to arbitration.
- The lunacy of her father and the depravity of her mother were serious drawbacks to Catherine, and her only education was obtained in a convent at Poissy.
- Leases may be made on behalf of lunatics subject to the jurisdiction in lunacy under the provisions of the Lunacy Act 1890 and the Settled Land Act 1882.
- The act of 1894, as we have seen, not only established the Local Government Board, consisting of the secretary for Scotland, the solicitor-general, the under-secretary and three appointed members - a vice-president, a lawyer and a medical officer of public health - but also replaced the parochial boards by parish councils, empowered to deal among other things with poor relief, lunacy, vaccination, libraries, baths, recreation grounds, disused churchyards, rights of way, parochial endowments, and the formation of special lighting and scavenging districts.
- Brooke Little, The Law of Burials; Archbold, On Lunacy (4th ed., by S.
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