| / English Dictionary |
HYSTERICAL
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Marked by excessive or uncontrollable emotion
Example:
a mob of hysterical vigilantes
Classified under:
Similar:
agitated (troubled emotionally and usually deeply)
Derivation:
hysteria (excessive or uncontrollable fear)
hysteria (state of violent mental agitation)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Characterized by or arising from psychoneurotic hysteria
Example:
hysterical amnesia
Synonyms:
hysteric; hysterical
Classified under:
Similar:
neurotic; psychoneurotic (affected with emotional disorder)
Derivation:
hysteria (neurotic disorder characterized by violent emotional outbreaks and disturbances of sensory and motor functions)
Context examples:
I remember the scene impelled me to sudden laughter, and in the next instant I realized I was becoming hysterical myself; for these were women of my own kind, like my mother and sisters, with the fear of death upon them and unwilling to die.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
There was a good deal of rustling and whispering behind the curtain, a trifle of lamp smoke, and an occasional giggle from Amy, who was apt to get hysterical in the excitement of the moment.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
The others were dazed at first, but as remembrance came back to them they cried and sobbed in a hysterical manner.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
You saw how hysterical I was yesterday.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
He was off in one of those hysterical outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis is over and gone.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Here was the secret of her blanched face, her shaken nerves, her peals of hysterical laughter on the next morning.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
When she had administered these restoratives, as I was still quite hysterical, and unable to control my sobs, she put me on the sofa, with a shawl under my head, and the handkerchief from her own head under my feet, lest I should sully the cover; and then, sitting herself down behind the green fan or screen I have already mentioned, so that I could not see her face, ejaculated at intervals, Mercy on us! letting those exclamations off like minute guns.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
What happened in the next few minutes I do not recollect, though I have a clear remembrance of pulling down life-preservers from the overhead racks, while the red-faced man fastened them about the bodies of an hysterical group of women.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
She turned towards Lucy in silent amazement, unable to divine the reason or object of such a declaration; and though her complexion varied, she stood firm in incredulity, and felt in no danger of an hysterical fit, or a swoon.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
He grew quite hysterical, and raising his open hands, beat his palms together in a perfect agony of grief.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
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