madden

[mad-n]

verb (used with object)

1. to anger or infuriate.

   The delays maddened her.

   Synonyms: annoy, vex, irritate, exasperate, inflame, anger, enrage, provoke
   Antonyms: mollify, calm

2. to make insane.

verb (used without object)

1. to become mad; act as if mad; rage.

madden

/ ˈmædən /

verb

1. to make or become mad or angry

Other Word Forms

• unmaddened adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of madden¹

First recorded in 1725–35; mad + -en ¹

Example Sentences

“Yes, but there is more to it than that,” he said, with maddening mysteriousness.

Read more on Literature

“The Epstein issue maddens him,” one of his advisers told me.

Read more on Salon

He found it maddeningly difficult to read people’s nonverbal signals; and their verbal signals he often took more literally than they meant them.

Read more on Literature

He felt that a maddening finger was poking him in the side, and that the only way to make it stop was by plunging the hemostat in the nurse assistant’s slender neck.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The 23-year-old has gone from being an unquestionably talented winger, but sometimes maddeningly inconsistent, to the brilliant catalyst behind so much of their best moments this season.

Read more on BBC