madness Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun obsolete terms for legal insanity
    lunacy; insaneness.
  2. noun an acute viral disease of the nervous system of warm-blooded animals (usually transmitted by the bite of a rabid animal); rabies is fatal if the virus reaches the brain
    lyssa; hydrophobia; rabies.
  3. noun a feeling of intense anger
    fury; rage.
    • hell hath no fury like a woman scorned
    • his face turned red with rage
  4. noun the quality of being rash and foolish
    folly; foolishness; craziness.
    • trying to drive through a blizzard is the height of folly
    • adjusting to an insane society is total foolishness
  5. noun unrestrained excitement or enthusiasm
    rabidness; rabidity.
    • poetry is a sort of divine madness

WordNet

Mad"ness noun
Etymology
From Mad, a.
Definitions
  1. The condition of being mad; insanity; lunacy.
  2. Frenzy; ungovernable rage; extreme folly. Syn. -- Insanity; distraction; derangement; craziness; lunacy; mania; frenzy; franticness; rage; aberration; alienation; monomania. See Insanity.

Webster 1913