maddest

adjcrazy, insane
adjangry
adjenthusiastic; in love

Synonyms for maddest

adj crazy, insane

Antonyms for maddest

Word Origin & History

late 13c., from Old English gemædde (plural) "out of one's mind" (usually implying also violent excitement), also "foolish, extremely stupid," earlier gemæded "rendered insane," past participle of a lost verb *gemædan "to make insane or foolish," from Proto-Germanic *ga-maid-jan, demonstrative form of *ga-maid-az "changed (for the worse), abnormal" (cf. Old Saxon gimed "foolish," Old High German gimeit "foolish, vain, boastful," Gothic gamaiþs "crippled, wounded," Old Norse meiða "to hurt, maim"), from intensive prefix *ga- + PIE *moito-, past participle of root *mei- "to change" (cf. Latin mutare "to change," mutuus "done in exchange," migrare "to change one's place of residence;" see mutable).

Emerged in Middle English to replace the more usual Old English word, wod (see wood (adj.)). Sense of "beside oneself with excitement or enthusiasm" is from early 14c. Meaning "beside oneself with anger" is attested from early 14c., but deplored by Rev. John Witherspoon (1781) as an Americanism. It now competes in American English with angry for this sense. Of animals, "affected with rabies," from late 13c. Phrase mad as a March hare is attested from 1520s, via notion of breeding season; mad as a hatter is from 1829 as "demented," 1837 as "enraged," according to a modern theory supposedly from erratic behavior caused by prolonged exposure to poison mercuric nitrate, used in making felt hats. For mad as a wet hen see hen. Mad money is attested from 1922; mad scientist is from 1891.

Example Sentences for maddest

Midway in them, they met a rider, riding at the maddest gallop.

Remember that you are dealing with the cleverest and maddest brain we know of to-day.

A difference that in my maddest dreams I could never have hoped for.

It was a shriek as of one in the maddest agony, and lasted for some seconds.

Oh, I know it is the wildest, maddest, most unpardonable thing I am saying to you.

Now I do not wish to show Hamlet at his maddest: but mad he must be shown, or he is no Hamlet at all.

Both of 'em acted like they were mad at each other, but Fairchild seemed to be the maddest.

Art thou the malignest of Sansculottists, or only the maddest?

What gave him those long hours of dejection, following the maddest gaiety?

He is, on the whole, quite the maddest—and perhaps the most despicable—of the lot.