From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbedlambed‧lam /ˈbedləm/ noun [uncountable] LOUD/NOISYa situation where there is a lot of noise and confusion SYN chaos When the bomb exploded, there was bedlam.
Examples from the Corpus
bedlam• All this beneath a canopy of sulphur and a bedlam of sounds, like confusion confounded.• The taut dialogue raises a squirming smorgasbord of questions about the potential for bedlam when our profound individual differences are ignored.• And she was off into her bedlam of mythology once more.• The classroom erupted into bedlam whenever Miss Simpson left for longer than a minute.• That innocence was not the natural state, bedlam was.• In the bedlam of yelling and barking he danced from one foot to the other in a brief breathless panic.• All around me the bedlam continued but I was looking inward.• The bedlam in no way flustered Boxer Sullivan.Origin bedlam (1600-1700) bedlam “mental hospital” ((17-18 centuries)), from Bedlam “Bethlehem” ((10-17 centuries)); from the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem former London mental hospital 