Link Centre Dictionary

mad

UK/ˈmæd/ US/ˈmæːd/ very common informal slang uk us

adjective

1.

roused to anger

  • “stayed huffy a good while” Mark Twain
  • “she gets mad when you wake her up so early”
  • “mad at his friend”
  • “sore over a remark”
Synonyms
Similar
3.

marked by uncontrolled excitement or emotion

  • “a crowd of delirious baseball fans”
  • “something frantic in their gaiety”
  • “a mad whirl of pleasure”
4.

very foolish

  • “harebrained ideas”
  • “took insane risks behind the wheel”
  • “a completely mad scheme to build a bridge between two mountains”
Similar

Origin

From Middle English mad, madde, madd, medd, from Old English ġemǣd, ġemǣded (“enraged”), past participle of ġemǣdan, *mǣdan (“to make insane or foolish”), from Proto-Germanic *maidijaną (“to change; damage; cripple; injure; make mad”), from Proto-Germanic *maidaz ("weak; crippled"; compare Old English gemād (“silly, mad”), Old High German gimeit (“foolish, crazy”), literary German gemeit (“mad, insane”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (gamaiþs, “crippled”)), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- ("to change"; compare Old Irish máel (“bald, dull”), Old Lithuanian ap-maitinti (“to wound”), Sanskrit मेथति (méthati, “he hurts, comes to blows”)).

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.