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MANIAC
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An insane person
Synonyms:
Classified under:
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 something
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 disordered
Example:
a maniacal frenzy
Synonyms:
maniac; maniacal
Classified under:
Similar:
insane (afflicted with or characteristic of mental derangement)
Derivation:
maniac (a person who has an obsession with or excessive enthusiasm for something)
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)
