mad as... adj.
completely deranged, utterly furious. Other than those listed separately below, vars. include mad as a beetle, ...a Chinaman, ...a dingbat, ...a goanna, ...a mudfly, ...as tucker, ...as hops; thus ext. as madder than...
![]() | A mery playe [...] of albyon knyghte n.p.: And though thou be all redy as mad as a harte / Yet will I make thee madder then thou arte. | |
![]() | The rewarde of wickednesse n.p.: Some stackering stumbled as mad as a Tup. | |
![]() | Pappe with an hatchet n.p.: [I]f you minister it like Tobacco to a Puritane, it will make him as mad as a Martin. | |
![]() | Comedy of Errors III i: It would make a man mad as a buck to be so bought and sold. | |
![]() | Honest Whore Pt 1 V ii : Ile be madder than a roasted Cat. | |
![]() | Quaternio 165: [T]o drinke vs[que] ad Crapulam, vntill we be as lothsome as a Sowe, as wanton as an Ape, as mad as a Dog. | |
![]() | Proverbs English, and Latine 286: As mad as a mastiefe. | |
![]() | [trans.] The history of Algiers 126: [A] Turk [...] coming to his Lodging drunk and mad as a Beast, occasion’d by his having eaten Opium. | |
![]() | Proverbs 237: As mad as the baiting bull of Stamford. | |
![]() | The vvits paraphras’d 6: Soon as I rese mad as a Hawk / To see my self so plaguy bawk't,. | |
![]() | Rivals (1776) IV ii: O! she’s as mad as Bedlam! | |
![]() | Hamlet Travestie III i: king: How’s Hamlet? queen: Mad as butter in the sun. | |
![]() | Major Downing (1834) 206: We are all as mad as blazes about it. | |
![]() | Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) 9 May 125/2: Old Bill got mad as ‘tucker’ because the boys left him [DA]. | |
![]() | Drama in Pokerville 131: Up stars I went with ’em, mad as thunder. | |
![]() | Season Ticket 278: He is as mad as a polar-bear dancin on hot iron. | |
![]() | A Sketch of Sam Bass (1956) 135: He will give us h-ll, for they are mad as h-ll. | |
![]() | Hull Packet 25 June 3/1: Bud reflected with pleasure that her trophies would make the other girls ‘as mad as hops’. | |
![]() | Leeds Times 25 Mar. 6/5: When I thinks of it I get madder ’n a hunted buffalo. | |
![]() | Letters from Cambridge 47: He was as mad as a bear and [...] complained to my Tutor. | |
![]() | Seventy Years in Dixie 240: I wuz as mad as blazes. | |
![]() | Black Cat Club 115: [I] staht out lak I’m as mad as Sam Hill! | |
![]() | Abner Daniel 301: He was as mad as Tucker. | |
![]() | DN III:v 347: mad as (old Dan) Tucker, adj. Very angry. | ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in|
![]() | DN IV:ii 76: mad as hops, also madder’n snakes in hayin’, adj.phr. Very angry. | ‘Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire’ in|
![]() | Morn. Post (Camden, NJ) 15 May 8/1: ‘Is he mad?’ [...] ‘Mad as a coot’. | |
![]() | (con. WWI) Wings on My Feet 114: I tells him I don’t think I ought to salute when I am mad as hell. | |
![]() | McAlmon and the Lost Generation (1976) 44: Boutwell’s mad as a goat. | ‘Blithe Insecurities’ in Knoll|
![]() | Ascent of F6 I ii: The beggars are mad as coots! | |
![]() | Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 45: MAD AS A BEETLE, [...] SNAKE, CHINAMAN, DING BAT, GOANNA: A string of phrases all meaning crazy or stupid. | |
![]() | (con. 1850–60s) Malachi Horan Remembers 39: As mad as a bag full of cats in a bed of briars was Lanky Tom Callaghan when he heard the news. | |
![]() | Mercury (Hobart, Tas.) 12 Feb. 2/3: ‘The Man From Down Under’ was as mad as a two-bob watch. | |
![]() | Aus. Lang. 87: Here are a few more similes snatched from our environment: mad as a goanna, [...] mad as a beetle, (the similes mad as a dingbat or a Chinaman or a two-bob watch are also worth noting). | |
![]() | Courtship of Uncle Henry 74: Thompson looked as mad as a beetle. | |
![]() | Best that Ever Did It (1957) 84: Ed was in his car outside, mad as a boil. | |
![]() | Hang On a Minute, Mate (1963) 52: Old Andy mad as a gum-digger’s dog. | |
![]() | He who Shoots Last 1: They could [...] be as mad as a Woolworth’s watch—makes no difference, they are greatly respected. | |
![]() | Holy Smoke 65: She’d go mad as a beetle trying to make up her mind which old man was which. | |
![]() | Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 55: I’m mad as a bitch. | ‘Harlem Transfer’ in King|
![]() | Deathbird Stories (1978) 29: I’m mad as a mudfly, for chrissakes! | ‘The Whimper of Whipped Dogs’|
![]() | Countryman Karl Black 136: Doreen did not want him to get any. ‘It might make him mad. He was not even fully three years. The ganga in it might make him mad like shad.’. | |
![]() | Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] Dog’s inside, mad as a pork chop, the little bugger. |
In phrases
(Aus./US) completely deranged, utterly furious.
![]() | Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Dec. 18/3: [H]e confided to me as one worm to another – which may have been right, but it made me mad as a snake, though he never suspected it. | |
![]() | Drovers (1977) 4: The Boss is mad as a snake. | |
![]() | Capricornia (1939) 339: When they find they been jilted, go mad as snakes, get out the gun, saddle up — and a-huntin’ we will go. | |
![]() | These Are My People (1957) 63: ‘Shut up, you silly buggar,’ snapped Bruiser, who then turned to me and added, ‘Flicker’s mad as a snake.’. | |
![]() | Courtship of Uncle Henry 75: Anyone could see he was mad as a cut snake about everything and wanting to put the boot in. | |
![]() | For the Rest of Our Lives 377: He was a good bloke but mad as a snake when he got his blood up. | |
![]() | Jimmy Brockett 105: I got as mad as a cut snake then. | |
![]() | Joyful Condemned 232: What do you want to dwell on Terry for? She was always as mad as a snake. | |
![]() | Gone Fishin’ 179: Great little bloke to go fishin’ with. Mad as a cut snake. Liar, too. | |
![]() | (con. 1940s) Andy 137: Rooster’s mad as a snake. | |
![]() | Bastards I Have Known 114: Wally was as mad as a cut snake. | |
![]() | Dinkum Aussie Dict. 35: Mad as a cut snake: Both crazy and angry. | |
![]() | Human Torpedo 54: Yer mad as a cut snake. | |
![]() | Indep. Rev. 23 July 13: The director was ‘mad as a cut snake’. | |
![]() | Peepshow [ebook] When I found out about him and Mel I was ropeable, mate, mad as a cut snake. | |
![]() | Sucked In 169: He’s all hopped up [...] Mad as a cut snake. | |
![]() | ‘Ocker’ in The Drover’s Wives (2019) 181: He [i.e. a mad bull] was mad as a cut snake; she had to give himn six bullets before he carked it. |
(Aus.) insane, eccentric.
![]() | Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. | |
![]() | Aus. Lang. 87: A few more similes snatched from our environment: [...] mad as a gum-tree full of galahs. | |
![]() | Bill Wannan Bk Aus. Yarns 239: He’s as mad as a gum tree full of galahs. | |
![]() | Lingo 127: There are [...] subtle gradations in the types of stupidity, thoughtlessness, hopelessness, incapacity and sheer ineptitude that may come in for verbal censure. A person may be: [...] mad as a gum-tree full of galahs. | |
![]() | Speaking Our Lang. 12: A flock of these gregarious birds perched in trees and sounding off raucous calls generated the phrase as mad as a gumtree full of galahs. | |
![]() | Counting Wild Strawberries 302: ‘You’re as mad as a gum tree full of galahs!’ laughed Duncan. ‘C’mon guys, if a wussey pom can do this, so can we!’. |
very mad, utterly insane; in a rage.
![]() | Belfast Commercial Chron. 18 June 2/5: The fees [...] amount, it appears, to about 1,500l, which his Lordship must pay, and consequently, as the vulgar say, ‘he is as mad as a hatter’. | |
![]() | Mirror of Lit. 14 8/2: Tickler (aside to Shepherd) He’s raving [...] Odoherty (to both) Mad as a hatter. | |
![]() | Clockmaker I 54: He [...] never said another word, lookin as mad as a hatter the whole blessed time. | |
![]() | Clockmaker III 51: He knew I would tell the story all round the town, and he was as mad as a hatter. | |
![]() | Nature and Human Nature II 40: I was as mad as a hatter. | |
![]() | Mr Sprouts, His Opinions 40: All the busseys twigged us, too, and begun throwin’ their jeers out, till I felt as mad as a hatter. | |
![]() | Dagonet Ballads 102: She’s as mad as a hatter, sir, now. | |
![]() | Marvel 22 Dec. 636: He’s fair off his chump – mad as a bloomin’ hatter! | |
![]() | Greenmantle (1930) 222: He was getting struck now in real earnest, and he didn’t like it. He had lost his bearings and was growing as mad as a hatter. | |
![]() | So Much Velvet 86: Mad as a Matteawan hatter. | |
![]() | Tramp and Other Stories 24: Mad as hatters most of them. | |
![]() | Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 42: ’E finished up in Colney ’Atch mad as a ’atter three months later. | |
![]() | If I Die in a Combat Zone (1980) 31: ‘You crazy?’ ‘Mad as a hatter.’. | |
![]() | Limericks Down Under 35: A firebug in old Parramatta, / Was really as mad as a hatter. | |
![]() | Chopper From The Inside 138: I loved little Joe the Boss. He was mad as a hatter, but he was loyal to me. |
very mad or angry.
![]() | John Bull & Bro. Jonathan (1835) 114: This made John as mad as a hornet, for he was as proud as Lucifer, and always called himself lord of the millpond. | |
![]() | Major Jones’s Courtship (1872) 211: Uncle Josh was as mad as a hornit, and come monstrous nigh givin Pete a lickin. | |
![]() | Nashville Union and American XXXIII Aug. in Inge (1967) 169: Mad, by golly, mad as a hornet. | ‘Sut Lovingood’s Big Dinner Story’|
![]() | Millheim Jrnl (PA) 24 Aug. 1/4: She tied her old bonnet on her head and stepped out [...] asmad as a hornet. | |
![]() | Dly Commercial Herald (Vicksburg, MS) 1 Mar. 2/4: Mad as Hornets [...] The Republican senators are in a very angry mood. | |
![]() | On Board a Whaler 341: He caught on and was mad as a hornet. | |
![]() | Harvester 23: I was mad as hornets at first, but since I’ve slept on the idea, I rather like it. | |
![]() | War Birds (1926) 89: Spriggs was mad as a hornet. | |
![]() | in Rainbow in Morning 89: As mad as a hornet; as mad as hops. | |
![]() | Townsville Daily Bulletin 6 Nov. 11/2: The men who had been swindled out of a good deal of their money were as mad as a mob sunburned hornets. | |
![]() | Sunset Pass 272: Mad as hornets. | |
![]() | Jimmy Brockett 32: Joe was as mad as a hornet at first when I let slip about Pearl and me. | |
![]() | Life at the Bottom 58: There’s that seal [...] leaping out of the water mad as a hornet, and the seal is shaking its fist, yelling, you fuckin’ USARPS. | |
![]() | (con. 1945) Touch and Go 170: Bucksie, jumping mad as a hornet. | |
![]() | Reunited for Holidays 60: ‘A few moments ago, I was sure you were mad as a hornet at me for hanging out at your ranch.’ ‘Not as mad as a hornet,’ she corrected. ‘Irked’. |
(N.Z.) very crazy.
![]() | AS XVIII:2 Apr. 90: Phrases like ‘mad as a maggot’, ‘mad as a meat axe’ are obviously linked with these expressions [i.e. to go maggoty]. | ‘Eng. as it is Spoken in N.Z.’ in|
![]() | Gun in My Hand 43: Mad as a maggot. Ya shoulda married her. | |
![]() | Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 71/1: mad as a maggot very mad, very silly, very angry, very eccentric. | |
![]() | Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988]. |
1. very crazy.
[ | ![]() | Magnyfycence line 930: As mery as a Marche hare] . |
![]() | A dialogue n.p.: Contrary to reason ye stampe and ye stare. / Ye frete and ye fume, as mad as a marche hare. | |
![]() | Honest Whore Pt 1 I viii: A plague on ’em, ther’s no ho with ’em, they’re madder than March hares. | |
![]() | Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 48: They beheld the Bear playing fifty Monkey tricks, as if he was as mad as a March Hare. | |
![]() | Knights in Works (1799) I 68: Mother’s as mad as a March hare about it. | |
![]() | High Life in N.Y. I 259: Miss Josephine Burgess that was, sot on a stool, looking as mad as a march hare. | |
![]() | N.-Y. After Dark 28: ‘Mad’s a hare!’ gasped another. | |
![]() | Dick Temple I 41: ‘She was as mad as a March hare.’. | |
![]() | Marvel 12 Nov. 3: The silly fool, he’s as mad as a March hare! | |
![]() | DN III iii 193: mad as a March hare, adj phr. Crazy. | ‘Word-List from Hampstead, N.H.’ in
2. lustful.
![]() | Amorous Bugbears 27: I shall be as mad as a Jack Hare in March, or a Buck in Rutting-time. |
see under meat axe n.
very crazy.
![]() | Everie Woman in her Humor B3: If he were as madde as a weauer [OED]. |
extremely angry.
![]() | Backwoodsman and Dandy 42: Every body that was not ax’d was mad as a wet hen. | |
![]() | New Northwest (Portland, OR) 19 May 2/6: How d’ye spose I feel then? Why, madder than a wet hen. | |
![]() | New Ulm Wkly (MN) 23 Feb. 3/2: The owner of the hay was madder than a wet hen. | |
![]() | Mat. Tribune (DC) 30 June 1/6: The Union Army [...] muddy, hungry, discouraged and madder than ‘wet hens’ — mad to think they had been defeated. | |
![]() | Forty Years a Gambler 67: He got mad as a wet hen, and told me he had just as much money as I had. | |
![]() | Truth (Sydney) 26 Aug. 1/4: She was maddern’ a wet hen an’ warnted His Hegggsellency to heggsersise his Himperial powers. | |
![]() | Herald (LA) 21 July 8/3: The Spanish Dons are madder than wet hens. | |
![]() | Abner Daniel 198: That made me madder ’n a wet hen. | |
![]() | N.Z. Truth 26 Jan. 6/7: This sort of catechism from common rude people always make the dapper little linen draper as wild as a wet hen. | |
![]() | Tacoma Times (WA) 4 Nov. 5/1: He got madder than a wet hen when Stewart intimated [etc.]. | |
![]() | DN III:vi 445: mad as a wet hen, adj. phr. Very angry. | ‘Word-List From Western New York’ in|
![]() | DN III:viii 582: madder than a wet hen, adj. Angry beyond self control. | ‘Word-List From Western Indiana’ in|
![]() | Supressed Desires in Mayorga (1919) 312: Hen — hen — wet hen — dry — hen — mad hen! (Jumps up in a rage). | |
![]() | Day Book (Chicago) 19 Feb. 17/1: By this time the man was gone madder than a wet hen. | |
![]() | Tulsa Star (OK) 19 June 2/1: This result made the Colored men madder than a score of wet hens. | |
![]() | Walls Of Jericho 163: It makes him mad as a wet hen to run out’n anything. | |
![]() | Right Ho, Jeeves 210: If you think I like it, you jolly well mistake yourself. I am so mad as a wet hen. | |
![]() | Seeds of Man (1995) 363: All of ’em’s madder’n a wet hen. | |
![]() | Dud Avocado (1960) 125: I returned to the table black and blue, two buttons ripped off my blouse and mad as a wet hen. | |
![]() | Dict. of Invective (1991) 191: wet hen (an angry one, usually in the phrase, as mad as a wet hen). | |
![]() | Road Back Home 118: I gave him that name just to make him mad. He gets about as mad as a wet hen in a yellow jacket’s nest when I call him that. | |
![]() | On the Back of the Other Side 251: Naked, wet, slippery and mad as a wet hen to boot. | |
![]() | Swollen Red Sun 99: Jerry Dean come by [...] and he’s madder ’n a wet cat. |
extremely annoyed.
![]() | Lying Together 208: If I was in your shoes, darling, I’d be mad as fuck. | |
![]() | Melody Maker 23 May 🌐 Super Furry Animals are all of the following: crazy, drunk, Welsh, mad as fuck, a genius pop group [etc.]. | |
![]() | 🎵 Your [sic] probably mad as fuck, wondering where I got the information from. | ‘Rip the Jacker’|
![]() | Against the Grain 18: ‘I’m just mad as fuck.’ ‘Well calm the fuck down before you wake up the neighborhood’. |