| / English Dictionary |
LUNATIC
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A reckless impetuous irresponsible person
Synonyms:
daredevil; harum-scarum; hothead; lunatic; madcap; swashbuckler
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("lunatic" is a kind of...):
adventurer; venturer (a person who enjoys taking risks)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lunatic"):
tearaway (a reckless and impetuous person)
Sense 2
Meaning:
An insane person
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("lunatic" is a kind of...):
diseased person; sick person; sufferer (a person suffering from an illness)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lunatic"):
crazy; looney; loony; nutcase; weirdo (someone deranged and possibly dangerous)
bedlamite (an archaic term for a lunatic)
pyromaniac (a person with a mania for setting things on fire)
madwoman (a woman lunatic)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Insane and believed to be affected by the phases of the moon
Synonyms:
lunatic; moonstruck
Classified under:
Similar:
insane (afflicted with or characteristic of mental derangement)
Domain usage:
colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)
Derivation:
lunacy (foolish or senseless behavior)
lunacy (obsolete terms for legal insanity)
Context examples:
After all, I have some more responsible work in the world than to run about disproving the assertions of a lunatic.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The honeymoon over, I learned my mistake; she was only mad, and shut up in a lunatic asylum.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Passers-by probably thought them a pair of harmless lunatics, for they entirely forgot to hail a bus, and strolled leisurely along, oblivious of deepening dusk and fog.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Tell him for me that I have quite made up my mind, and that it is certain that a dangerous homicidal lunatic, with Napoleonic delusions, was in his house last night.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Nor would you, or, rather, should you, accept the ravings and writhings and agonized contortions of those two lunatics to-night as a convincing portrayal of love.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Here was my own pet lunatic—the most pronounced of his type that I had ever met with—talking elemental philosophy, and with the manner of a polished gentleman.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
You are not perhaps aware, he continued, edging his chair a little nearer the table, and speaking low, that there was a lady—a—a lunatic, kept in the house?
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
But Mr. Dashwood rejected any but thrilling tales, and as thrills could not be produced except by harrowing up the souls of the readers, history and romance, land and sea, science and art, police records and lunatic asylums, had to be ransacked for the purpose.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
These men, who slaughtered English, gesticulated like lunatics, and fought one another's ideas with primitive anger, seemed somehow to be more alive than Mr. Morse and his crony, Mr. Butler.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
It is a new experience to me to find a lunatic who talk philosophy, and reason so sound.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
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