madder
part of speech
adjective (mad, madder, maddest); noun (madder — uncountable; a madder plant)
meaning for a pupil
1) Madder is the comparative of mad: more angry. tree →
2) (informal, mostly UK) Madder means more crazy, silly or wild. tree →
3) Madder is a plant with roots that give a red dye, and the red colour made from it, used for thousands of years to dye cloth. tree →
sense in the lessons
Mostly it is the -er form of mad in everyday speech: «He got madder and madder.» In US English mad usually means angry; in UK English mad usually means crazy or silly («mad about football» = loves it). In history and art lessons madder is a natural red dye, used for British soldiers' red coats and old paintings. Phrases: madder and madder, madder than ever, madder red, rose madder.
examples
- The longer she waited, the madder she got. tree →
- That's an even madder idea than the last one! tree →
- Dad got madder when the car still wouldn't start. tree →
- Madder roots were boiled to make red dye. tree →
- The painter used rose madder for the sunset. tree →
- The soldiers' coats were dyed with madder. tree →
- But if they had only known what were Gilguerillo's thoughts they would have thought him madder than ever. tree →
note
Double d in madder and maddest (short vowel + one consonant). Mad has two senses: angry (especially US) and crazy (especially UK); be careful, «mad» can be unkind when used about people with mental illness. As a plant and colour, madder is an uncountable noun.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «madder» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.