madness

«madness» in Mova's school dictionary: Very foolish or dangerous behaviour: It would be madness… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (madness — uncountable; madnesses — rare)

meaning for a pupil

1) Very foolish or dangerous behaviour: It would be madness to swim in that storm. tree →

2) (old-fashioned) Serious mental illness. tree →

3) Wild excitement or confusion: the madness of the January sales. tree →

4) Great anger (old use). tree →

5) In old tales, madness can also be a name for rabies, a deadly illness of dogs that can spread to people. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday talk «It's madness!» means a plan is silly or dangerous. In stories madness can describe chaos (Black Friday madness, March Madness for US basketball). The old sense for mental illness is now unkind — say «mental illness» instead.

examples

• It's madness to cycle on the motorway. tree →
• The shops were pure madness before the holidays. tree →
• «This is madness!» shouted the captain as the waves rose. tree →
• There's method in his madness — his odd plan worked. tree →
• The madness of the crowd scared the little boy. tree →
• Leaving the gate open with the dog outside was madness. tree →
• We call it hydrophobia, but they call it dewanee--the madness--and run. tree →

note

Uncountable. From mad + -ness. «Method in the madness» = a hidden sensible reason. Using «madness» about real illness is old-fashioned and can be hurtful.

In the corpora

• The LORD will smite thee with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart.
• The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness; and the end of his talk is grievous madness.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «madness» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.