Library / English Dictionary

    MANIAC

    Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

     I. (noun) 

    Sense 1

    Meaning:

    An insane personplay

    Synonyms:

    lunatic; madman; maniac

    Classified under:

    Nouns denoting people

    Hypernyms ("maniac" is a kind of...):

    diseased person; sick person; sufferer (a person suffering from an illness)

    Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "maniac"):

    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)

    Derivation:

    maniacal (wildly disordered)

    Sense 2

    Meaning:

    A person who has an obsession with or excessive enthusiasm for somethingplay

    Classified under:

    Nouns denoting people

    Hypernyms ("maniac" is a kind of...):

    enthusiast; fancier (a person having a strong liking for something)

    Derivation:

    maniac (wildly disordered)

     II. (adjective) 

    Sense 1

    Meaning:

    Wildly disorderedplay

    Example:

    a maniacal frenzy

    Synonyms:

    maniac; maniacal

    Classified under:

    Adjectives

    Similar:

    insane (afflicted with or characteristic of mental derangement)

    Derivation:

    maniac (a person who has an obsession with or excessive enthusiasm for something)

    Credits

     Context examples: 

    I was physically influenced by the atmosphere and scene, and my ears were filled with the curses the maniac still shrieked out; wherein she momentarily mingled my name with such a tone of demon-hate, with such language!—no professed harlot ever had a fouler vocabulary than she: though two rooms off, I heard every word—the thin partitions of the West India house opposing but slight obstruction to her wolfish cries.

    (Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)


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