From Middle English mad, madde, madd, medd, from Old English ġemǣd, ġemǣded (“enraged”), past participle of ġemǣdan, *mǣdan (“to make insane or foolish”), from Proto-Germanic *maidijaną (“to change; damage; cripple; injure; make mad”), from Proto-Germanic *maidaz ("weak; crippled"; compare Old English gemād (“silly, mad”), Old High German gimeit (“foolish, crazy”), literary German gemeit (“mad, insane”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (gamaiþs, “crippled”)), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- ("to change"; compare Old Irish máel (“bald, dull”), Old Lithuanian ap-maitinti (“to wound”), Sanskrit मेथति (méthati, “he hurts, comes to blows”)).
You want to spend a thousand pounds on a pair of shoes? Are you mad?
He's got this mad idea that he's irresistible to women.
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I have heard my grandsire say full oft, / Extremity of griefs would make men mad.c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
Sometimes, I feel sure he is as mad as a hatter; and then, just as he is at his maddest, I find there is method in his madness.1920 October, Agatha Christie, “The Arrest”, in The Mysterious Affair at Styles […], New York, N.Y.; London: Grosset & Dunlap, published March 1927, page 218:
Dr. Manuel: Is it madness to see the future? To see the destruction rushing towards us? To understand there is no escape? No hope? No, I am not mad. I'm the only sane one left!2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Eden Prime:
And I punished them oft in euery Synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme, and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them euen vnto strange cities.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 26:11:
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She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
3
Informal, In the negative Used litotically to indicate satisfaction or approval.
Wow, you really made this pie from scratch? I'm not mad at it.
I'm not mad at this little house, though.2019, The Real Housewives of Atlanta, season 13, episode 3:
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But I mean, once the flow was there, nobody was mad at it.2019, “'Thank U' Text: Ariana Grande's Collaborators Break Down The Artist's Latest Album”, in NPR:
It's mad that I got that job back a day after being fired.
5
Wildly confused or excited.
to be mad with terror, lust, or hatred
It is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 1:88:
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My brother, quiet as a cat, seems perfectly contented with the internal feelings of his felicity. The Marquis, mad as a kitten, is all in motion to express it, from tongue to heel.1787, R. Bage, The Fair Syrian, page 314:
[…] at all, just a vast space of desert out in the saltlands of Nevada. It's serious dressing up, the maddest entertainment, craziest art, and at the end there's the burning of a huge effigy, stuffed with pyrotechnics 287.2010 May 27, Judy Astley, Blowing It: a brilliantly funny, mad-cap novel guaranteed to make you laugh from bestselling author Judy Astley, Random House, →ISBN, page 287:
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Extremely foolish or unwise; irrational; imprudent.
7
Colloquial, Usually, With for Extremely enthusiastic about; crazy about; infatuated with; overcome with desire for.
Aren't you just mad for that red dress?
My wife is soccer-mad.
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She's mad on the baking these days.
Glenereegan is to be sold to the highest bidder to-day.[…]I'm tould - It's Pether Byrne that dhrives Bianconi's car that tould me - that a smalpeen of a Dublin attorney is mad for it.1883 January 6, Nugent Robinson, Ave Maria - Volume 9 - Father Tom: A Story of Connemara, page 3:
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Of animals Abnormally ferocious or furious; or, rabid, affected with rabies.
a mad dog
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New York, Slang Intensifier, signifying abundance or high quality of a thing; very, much, excellent or many.
African-American Vernacular
I gotta give you mad props for scoring us those tickets. Their lead guitarist has mad skills. There are always mad girls at those parties.
From Middle English mad, madde, madd, medd, from Old English ġemǣd, ġemǣded (“enraged”), past participle of ġemǣdan, *mǣdan (“to make insane or foolish”), from Proto-Germanic *maidijaną (“to change; damage; cripple; injure; make mad”), from Proto-Germanic *maidaz ("weak; crippled"; compare Old English gemād (“silly, mad”), Old High German gimeit (“foolish, crazy”), literary German gemeit (“mad, insane”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (gamaiþs, “crippled”)), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- ("to change"; compare Old Irish máel (“bald, dull”), Old Lithuanian ap-maitinti (“to wound”), Sanskrit मेथति (méthati, “he hurts, comes to blows”)).
The imperial Elizabetta gazed with surprise at the youthful and unpretending appearance of the little being that had set the world madding.1832, Tales of the Alhambra, Washington Irving:
This musick mads me, let it sound no more.1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene 5]:
He that mads others, if he were so humoured, would be as mad himself, as much grieved and tormented […].1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition I, section 2, member 4, subsection iv:
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Carolina! Whine your body gyal! Make Dem know say you have it fi mad dem1993 March 22, “Oh Carolina”, in Pure Pleasure, performed by Shaggy (musician):