maddening
Americanadjective
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driving to madness or frenzy.
a maddening thirst.
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infuriating or exasperating.
his maddening indifference to my pleas.
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raging; furious.
a maddening wind.
adjective
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serving to send mad
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extremely annoying; exasperating
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of maddening
Explanation
Maddening things are extremely irritating: they make you mad. Some drivers have the maddening habit of following other cars too closely on the highway. If something annoys you a lot, it's maddening. You might try to ignore the maddening tune your sister keeps whistling, or decide to leave a movie half way through because of the maddening acting style of its leading man. The adjective maddening comes from the less-common verb madden, "annoy someone," or "drive someone insane." Both words are rooted in the Old English gemædde, "out of one's mind."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“The list goes on and on,” says Sara Petersen, author of “Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture.”
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 14, 2023
Maddening, infuriating or exasperating would have been more precise.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 20, 2021
Another program, called Maddening Whispers, is a set of software components—again, planted into a specific computer—that allow an intelligence agency to track all communications on certain specified devices.
From Slate • Mar. 7, 2017
Sneaking into the top-ten is the Carey Mulligan drama Far From the Maddening Crowd.
From Forbes • May 17, 2015
Was it but the breath of these Maddening plants that turned my brain?
From Atta Troll by Heine, Heinrich
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
