| / English Dictionary |
CRAZY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Irregular inflected forms: crazier , craziest
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Someone deranged and possibly dangerous
Synonyms:
crazy; looney; loony; nutcase; weirdo
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("crazy" is a kind of...):
lunatic; madman; maniac (an insane person)
Domain usage:
colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Intensely enthusiastic about or preoccupied with
Example:
gaga over the rock group's new album
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
enthusiastic (having or showing great excitement and interest)
Domain usage:
colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)
Derivation:
craze (an interest followed with exaggerated zeal)
craziness (the quality of being rash and foolish)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Possessed by inordinate excitement
Example:
was crazy to try his new bicycle
Classified under:
Similar:
excited (in an aroused state)
Domain usage:
colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)
Derivation:
craziness (foolish or senseless behavior)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Bizarre or fantastic
Example:
wore a crazy hat
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
strange; unusual (being definitely out of the ordinary and unexpected; slightly odd or even a bit weird)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Foolish; totally unsound
Example:
a screwball proposal without a prayer of working
Synonyms:
crazy; half-baked; screwball; softheaded
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
impractical (not practical; not workable or not given to practical matters)
Domain usage:
colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)
Derivation:
craziness (foolish or senseless behavior)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Affected with madness or insanity
Example:
a man who had gone mad
Synonyms:
brainsick; crazy; demented; disturbed; mad; sick; unbalanced; unhinged
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
insane (afflicted with or characteristic of mental derangement)
Derivation:
craze (state of violent mental agitation)
craziness (informal terms for insanity)
Context examples:
I now felt sure that the poor fellow had gone crazy in his solitude, and I suppose I must have shown the feeling in my face, for he repeated the statement hotly: Rich! Rich! I says.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
An episode of intense fear accompanied by symptoms such as heart palpitations, sweating and chills or hot flushes , a sensation of dyspnea, chest pain, abdominal distress, depersonalization, fear of going crazy, and fear of dying.
(Panic Attack, NCI Thesaurus)
The cellar, indeed, was filled with crazy lumber, mostly dating from the times of the surgeon who was Jekyll’s predecessor; but even as they opened the door they were advertised of the uselessness of further search, by the fall of a perfect mat of cobweb which had for years sealed up the entrance.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
“When I left her in America,” she continued, “it was only because her health was weak, and the change might have done her harm. She was given to the care of a faithful Scotch woman who had once been our servant. Never for an instant did I dream of disowning her as my child. But when chance threw you in my way, Jack, and I learned to love you, I feared to tell you about my child. God forgive me, I feared that I should lose you, and I had not the courage to tell you. I had to choose between you, and in my weakness I turned away from my own little girl. For three years I have kept her existence a secret from you, but I heard from the nurse, and I knew that all was well with her. At last, however, there came an overwhelming desire to see the child once more. I struggled against it, but in vain. Though I knew the danger, I determined to have the child over, if it were but for a few weeks. I sent a hundred pounds to the nurse, and I gave her instructions about this cottage, so that she might come as a neighbour, without my appearing to be in any way connected with her. I pushed my precautions so far as to order her to keep the child in the house during the daytime, and to cover up her little face and hands so that even those who might see her at the window should not gossip about there being a black child in the neighbourhood. If I had been less cautious I might have been more wise, but I was half crazy with fear that you should learn the truth.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I told him, “that in the kingdom of Tribnia, by the natives called Langdon, where I had sojourned some time in my travels, the bulk of the people consist in a manner wholly of discoverers, witnesses, informers, accusers, prosecutors, evidences, swearers, together with their several subservient and subaltern instruments, all under the colours, the conduct, and the pay of ministers of state, and their deputies. The plots, in that kingdom, are usually the workmanship of those persons who desire to raise their own characters of profound politicians; to restore new vigour to a crazy administration; to stifle or divert general discontents; to fill their coffers with forfeitures; and raise, or sink the opinion of public credit, as either shall best answer their private advantage. It is first agreed and settled among them, what suspected persons shall be accused of a plot; then, effectual care is taken to secure all their letters and papers, and put the owners in chains. These papers are delivered to a set of artists, very dexterous in finding out the mysterious meanings of words, syllables, and letters: for instance, they can discover a close stool, to signify a privy council; a flock of geese, a senate; a lame dog, an invader; the plague, a standing army; a buzzard, a prime minister; the gout, a high priest; a gibbet, a secretary of state; a chamber pot, a committee of grandees; a sieve, a court lady; a broom, a revolution; a mouse-trap, an employment; a bottomless pit, a treasury; a sink, a court; a cap and bells, a favourite; a broken reed, a court of justice; an empty tun, a general; a running sore, the administration.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
"Hans! Hans! Wake up!" she cried. "Don't be crazy!"
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
Why, you see, Jo is crazy about horses and so am I, but we've only got an old sidesaddle and no horse.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
It mastered it in you (you cannot deny it), because a crazy Cockney cook sharpened a knife.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
It was part of their fiendish system to punish those whom they feared or hated by injuring not only their own persons but those whom they loved, and it was the knowledge of this which hung as a terror over my poor Gennaro’s head and drove him nearly crazy with apprehension.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He did not know that the Transcontinental had been staggering along precariously for years, that it was a fourth-rater, or tenth-rater, without standing, with a crazy circulation that partly rested on petty bullying and partly on patriotic appealing, and with advertisements that were scarcely more than charitable donations.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
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