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Antonyms for maddest

Grammar : Adj
Spell : mad-ist
Phonetic Transcription : ˈmæd ɪst


Definition of maddest

Origin :
  • 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.
  • adj crazy, insane
  • adj angry
  • adj enthusiastic; in love
Example sentences :
  • Midway in them, they met a rider, riding at the maddest gallop.
  • Extract from : « Hetty's Strange History » by Anonymous
  • Remember that you are dealing with the cleverest and maddest brain we know of to-day.
  • Extract from : « The Mind Master » by Arthur J. Burks
  • A difference that in my maddest dreams I could never have hoped for.
  • Extract from : « The Golden Woman » by Ridgwell Cullum
  • It was a shriek as of one in the maddest agony, and lasted for some seconds.
  • Extract from : « A Rent In A Cloud » by Charles James Lever
  • Oh, I know it is the wildest, maddest, most unpardonable thing I am saying to you.
  • Extract from : « The Bondwoman » by Marah Ellis Ryan
  • Now I do not wish to show Hamlet at his maddest: but mad he must be shown, or he is no Hamlet at all.
  • Extract from : « Letters of Edward FitzGerald » by Edward FitzGerald
  • Both of 'em acted like they were mad at each other, but Fairchild seemed to be the maddest.
  • Extract from : « The Cross-Cut » by Courtney Ryley Cooper
  • Art thou the malignest of Sansculottists, or only the maddest?
  • Extract from : « Sartor Resartus, and On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History » by Thomas Carlyle
  • What gave him those long hours of dejection, following the maddest gaiety?
  • Extract from : « Beyond » by John Galsworthy
  • He is, on the whole, quite the maddest—and perhaps the most despicable—of the lot.
  • Extract from : « A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 » by George Saintsbury

Synonyms for maddest

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019