Search the Dictionary

Public sentiment; general passion. [R.] A little time be allowed for the madness of popularity to cease. Bancroft.

The state of being possessed or controlled, as by an evil spirit, or violent passions; madness; frenzy; as, demoniacal possession. How long hath this possession held the man Shak. To give possession, to put in another's power or occupancy. -- To put in possession. (a) To invest with ownership or occupancy; to provide…

A madness, craze, or strong fancy, for ferns. [R.] C. Kingsley.

Same as Hydrophobia (b); canine madness.

lirious; to talk or act irrationally; to be wild, furious, or raging, as a madman. In our madness evermore we rave. Chaucer. Have I not cause to rave and beat my breast Addison. The mingled torrent of redcoats and tartans went raving down the valley to the gorge of Kiliecrankie. Macaulay.

manner; with or in reality; actually; in truth. Whose anger is really but a short fit of madness. Swift.

Vagrant. [Obs.] Spenser. His roguish madness Allows itself to anything. Shak.

Turn; tendency; inborn disposition. Cf. 1st Strain. Because heretics have a strain of madness, he applied her with some corporal chastisements. Hayward.

One placed to superintend others; an overseer; an inspector. Were 't not madness then, To make the fox surveyor of the fold Shak.

, who rise, who triumph, who do moan. Daniel. Adders who with cloven tongues Do hiss into madness. Shak. Whom I could pity thus forlorn. Milton. How hard is our fate, who serve in the state. Addison. Who cheapens life, abates the fear of death. Young. The brace of large greyhounds, who were the companions of his sports…

Anger; madness; insanity; rage. [Obs.] Spenser. Woodness laughing in his rage. Chaucer.

ecking a disposition to gnaw. The operation was formerly supposed to guard against canine madness. The men assisted the laird in his sporting parties, wormed his dogs, and cut the ears of his terrier puppies. Sir W. Scott.