From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmadmad /mæd/ ●●● S2 W3 adjective (comparative madder, superlative maddest) 1 angry [not before noun] informal especially American EnglishANGRY angrymad at Are you still mad at me? We get mad at each other sometimes, like any family.mad about There’s no need to get mad about it! You make me so mad!mad with British English His wife will be really mad with him.go mad British English (=become very angry) Look at this mess! Mum will go mad!hopping mad (=very angry)(as) mad as hell (=a rude way of saying very angry)► see thesaurus at angry2 crazy especially British EnglishCRAZY crazy or very silly He can’t possibly get that finished in time. He must be mad! I’d go mad (=start to feel crazy) if I was stuck at home all day. He’s been driving me mad! You’ve agreed to marry him! Are you mad? Surely no one would be mad enough to fly in this weather? My friends all think I’m stark raving mad (=completely crazy). It’s enough to send you barking mad (=completely crazy).as mad as a hatter/March hare (=completely crazy)GrammarIn this meaning, mad is not used with ‘very’. You say: It’s an absolutely mad idea. ✗Don’t say: It’s a very mad idea.3 uncontrolled especially British EnglishCRAZY behaving in a wild uncontrolled way, without thinking about what you are doingmad dash/rush/panic etc We all made a mad dash for the door.mad with grief/fear/jealousy etc When she heard of her son’s death, she was mad with grief. When Italy scored, the crowd went mad (=became very excited). We went a bit mad (=spent a lot of money) and ordered champagne.4 → be mad about/for/on somebody/something5 mentally ill especially British English old-fashioned informalMENTALLY ILL mentally ill SYN insane Mr Rochester’s mad wife He turned towards me with a mad look in his eyes. the cartoon figure of the mad scientist6 → like mad7 → don’t go mad8 → power-mad/money-mad/sex-mad etc
Examples from the Corpus
mad• In the ones with both of us, we was laughing like mad.• She looked mean, she looked mad.• You couldn't ring the bell or they would go mad.• Was he mad?• We soon realized that the old man was completely mad.• Don seems really mad about something.• They say she went mad after her family were killed in a fire.• Sheila's mad at me because I forgot to feed the cats yesterday.• Sally was mad at the children for making so much noise.• The thing is she gets mad at the littlest things.• Ernie was mad because we woke him up.• It seems that everyone in Sierra has been driven mad by the heat.• Although mad, flagellants are not cowards.• There was a mad gleam in his bloodshot eyes.• Don't get mad. It was an accident.• The yellow lights on their anorexic columns look mad, like cyclopean triffids, very thin, very tall.mad at• Why are you so mad at me? I didn't do anything.driving ... mad• My despair is driving me mad.• No wonder you were driving yourself mad.• Kegan says they're driving him mad already and he wants me there right away to talk to some bloody newspaper people.• I am driving my mom mad by asking if Fluffy is just bones yet.• Her husband and relatives were virtually camped in the clinic, driving Irina mad with their interference.went mad• Inflation - rampant since independence - now went mad.• Was that when I went mad?• When Megara had borne him three sons he went mad.• My father went mad and I think he actually hated me for a short while.• His father went mad, and was confined to an asylum; maybe that was the disorder Hoover feared.• The comparisons with the good old days before Don Nelson went mad have mercifully ended.• The Press went mad on Doctor Who.• At forty, he heard a sermon by John of Avila and went mad with guilt.mad scientist• There was a fourth, but it was too squashed to be much good to the mad scientist.• Well he wasn't going hedgehog-spotting, not till he'd fixed up a deal with the mad scientist.• Well, Holmes, he looks just like the popular caricature of a mad scientist.• The sooner he could phone the mad scientist, and take them to the poly, the better.• Castle, this 1959 thriller casts Price as a mad scientist who discovers the biological cause of fear in human beings.• This distrust is evident in the cartoon figure of the mad scientist working in his laboratory to produce a Frankenstein.Origin mad Old English gemæd 