frenzy

nounadjectiveverbattested in dialogue

//ˈfɹɛnzi//

A state of wild activity or panic.

noun

1
A state of wild activity or panic.
international media frenzy
She went into a cleaning frenzy to prepare for the unexpected guests.
It is during these frenzies that sharks have been known to bite everything in sight, including other sharks engaged in the same activity.
At the very end of the Middle Ages, Breughel depicted country folk wrapped up in fits of mass hysteria, and the historical accounts of these rural frenzies have explained the delirium in terms of the slender diet on which the poor had to subsist during the hungry gap.
2
A violent agitation of the mind approaching madness; rage.
The poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling.
All else is towering frenzy and distraction.
He proffered a pact to Satan, calling upon the Fiend and working himself into a frenzy - but his infernal majesty failed to respond.

Etymology

From Middle English frensy, frenesie, from Old French frenesie, from Latin phrenesis, from Ancient Greek *φρένησις (*phrénēsis), a later equivalent of φρενῖτις (phrenîtis, “inflammation of the brain”): see frantic and frenetic. Doublet of phrenesis.

adjective

1
obsoleteMad; frantic.
They thought that some frenzy distemper had got into his head.

verb

1
To render frantic.
Both goaded on to strife by frenzying hate.
Then there is the absorbing, not to say frenzying, interest, which attends our important elections.
2
rareTo exhibit a frenzy, such as a feeding frenzy.
The fresh smell of salt air, the sound of the crashing swell, the soothing immersion in the water, the sight of dolphins playing and fish frenzying beneath my board.

Forms

plural: frenzies
comparative: more frenzy
superlative: most frenzy
past tense: frenzied
past participle: frenzied
present participle: frenzying
third person singular: frenzies

french · To prepare food by cutting it into strips.French · The language of France, shared by the neighboring countries…Frenchman · A man of French birth or nationality.

frenzy · A state of wild activity or panic.

frequency · The rate of occurrence of anything; the relationship between…frequent · Done or occurring often; common.frequently · At frequent intervals.

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.