craze
Americanverb (used with object)
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crazes,
present (3rd person singular)
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crazed,
past participle, past
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crazing
present participle
-
to derange or impair the mind of; make insane.
He was crazed by jealousy.
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to make small cracks on the surface of (a ceramic glaze, paint, or the like); crackle.
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British Dialect. to crack.
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Archaic. to weaken; impair.
to craze one's health.
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Obsolete. to break; shatter.
verb (used without object)
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crazes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
crazed,
past participle, past
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crazing
present participle
-
to become insane; go mad.
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to become minutely cracked, as a ceramic glaze; crackle.
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Metallurgy.
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(of a case-hardened object) to develop reticulated surface markings; worm.
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(of an ingot) to develop an alligator skin as a result of being teemed into an old and worn mold.
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Archaic. to fall to pieces; break.
noun
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a short-lived current fashion
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a wild or exaggerated enthusiasm
a craze for chestnuts
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mental disturbance; insanity
verb
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to make or become mad
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ceramics metallurgy to develop or cause to develop a fine network of cracks
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archaic (tr) to break
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archaic (tr) to weaken
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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crazesimple
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crazessimple
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have crazedperfect
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has crazedperfect
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am crazingprogressive
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are crazingprogressive
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is crazingprogressive
-
have been crazingperfect progressive
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has been crazingperfect progressive
Past
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crazedsimple
-
had crazedperfect
-
was crazingprogressive
-
were crazingprogressive
-
had been crazingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of craze
1325–75; Middle English crasen to crush < Scandinavian; compare Swedish, Norwegian krasa to shatter, crush
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.
See Examples For:
The craze is reflected on social media, where fried chicken has had a renaissance.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
The company’s share performance has mirrored the cooling Labubu craze.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Deep in a braiding craze, the children can’t resist braiding everything in sight: hair, shoelaces, even the tails of the classroom’s toy ponies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
The duo were pioneers of the aerobics craze that gripped the nation during that decade and helped create the National Aerobic Championship.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
In 1937 they opened a drive-in restaurant in Pasadena, trying to cash in on the new craze, hiring three carhops and selling mainly hot dogs.
From "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" by Eric Schlosser
Like many other internet-fueled food crazes, Cane’s enthusiasm often spills offline in surprisingly tangible ways.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
You could say that frozen-yogurt trends come in crazes, not phases.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
Thanks to social media and modern health crazes, hydration is no longer about just drinking water — and that has kicked off a corporate rush to develop and market more sophisticated drinks.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 11, 2026
At its peak, Unity was a wildly popular game engine and the driving force behind viral crazes like Pokémon Go.
From Barron's ● Mar. 27, 2026
The waves of recurring crime, the silly fads and crazes, the quicksilver changes in public taste, the hysteria and fears—all of these had long been mysteries to me.
From "Native Son" by Richard Wright
After 10 days of crazed moviegoing at the Cannes Film Festival, Times film critic Amy Nicholson and Times film editor Joshua Rothkopf are all but spent.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026
“It was quite a display of abuse and anger, for all to see, crazed and out of control. The ICE Officer was calm and cool, not an easy thing to be under those circumstances!”
From Salon ● Jan. 30, 2026
These buyouts are absurd, an outgrowth of a crazed marketplace and undeniably screwy optics at a state university.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2025
It brought people who saw the hordes of crazed support as a money faucet—an opportunity to turn Tesla allegiance into a financial gold mine.
From Slate ● Sep. 26, 2025
When we arrived, Mary Lou's brothers were running around like crazed animals, jumping over the furniture and tossing footballs.
From "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech
But the Bureau of Land Management still moved to protect them with new rules that would limit mining, development and cattle crazing — all of which represent lucrative revenue for industries and the states.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 14, 2015
As bad as we’ve played, people might think I’m crazing for saying we don’t believe we’re out of it.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 27, 2011
Too thick a finish will cause cooling, crazing and cracking.
From Time Magazine Archive
While unsuspended wheels the village dance, The maidens eye him with enquiring glance, Much wondering by what fit of crazing care, Or desperate love, bewildered, he came there.
From The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 1 by William Knight
Rich fusible clays added to hard clays may stop the crazing, or the fusing point may be lowered by the addition of spar.
From Pottery, for Artists Craftsmen & Teachers by George J. Cox
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.
