madden
Americanverb (used with object)
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maddens,
present (3rd person singular)
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maddened,
past participle, past
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maddening
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
maddens,
present (3rd person singular)
-
maddened,
past participle, past
-
maddening
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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maddensimple
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maddenssimple
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have maddenedperfect
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has maddenedperfect
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am maddeningprogressive
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are maddeningprogressive
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is maddeningprogressive
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have been maddeningperfect progressive
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has been maddeningperfect progressive
Past
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maddenedsimple
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had maddenedperfect
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was maddeningprogressive
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were maddeningprogressive
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had been maddeningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of madden
Explanation
Use the verb madden when something exasperates you or drives you up a wall. Terrible traffic when you're late for an appointment is sure to madden you. If something makes you mad or gets on your nerves, it maddens you. If your dogs tend to madden you, it means that they drive you crazy. When you madden your dogs, you get them so riled up that they run around the house barking. The earliest use of the verb was literally "to make mad or insane," though by the early 1800's it meant "to drive to distraction."
Vocabulary lists containing madden
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Anger (verb)
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The Sound and the Fury: Synonyms for "Anger"
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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:
Written and directed by the Australian actor Frances O’Connor, making a vibrant feature filmmaking debut, it will surely madden sticklers for accuracy, which is all to the good.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 15, 2023
Not the least of Michael’s gifts is the ability to madden other minds.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 12, 2018
The glacier-paced interactions of the actors here may initially madden you; by the end, the sense of the oppressive weight that controls their motions breaks your heart.
From New York Times ● May 22, 2016
It may madden the staff when David directs a segment, because he throws the rules out.
From Time Magazine Archive
They must have been things meant not to quiet it but to madden it.
From "The Magician's Nephew" by C. S. Lewis
As warmer spotlights go, “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley” may never fully expunge what maddens and mystifies about the untimely end of troubled souls.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2025
There are so many music docs particularly about women that are told through this tragic heroine lens, but I wanted to create something that maddens people and makes them angry but also is galvanizing.
From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2022
Francis has a tendency for making off-the-cuff public remarks, a trait that maddens both supporters and critics alike.
From New York Times ● Oct. 21, 2020
Nothing is ever certain with Klinsmann, whose unpredictability maddens U.S. supporters and catches his own players off guard.
From Washington Post ● May 28, 2016
It maddens me that Carlyle refuses to commit to any sort of opinion.
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
De Gaulle maddened his British hosts, and particularly Churchill, with his ceaseless complaints and ingratitude.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026
Gertrude never quite comes into focus, but the pathos of Ophelia, maddened by grief, is enhanced by the simple yet forceful way Izzard helplessly pounds her chest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 25, 2026
Local officials around the state say they have been similarly maddened.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 19, 2021
Still, we will almost certainly continue to be fascinated, perplexed and maddened by the “authorship” question, what Stuart Kells grandiosely calls, in the subtitle to “Shakespeare’s Library,” the “greatest mystery in literature.”
From Washington Post ● May 22, 2019
Dessie’s eyes were milky and crazy, like those of a maddened horse.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
For the visitors, the productivity was a maddening mirror image.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
Zwick: The book has a bunch of cool stories that are fun to read, inspiring in a lot of cases, and sometimes maddening.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 21, 2026
It is maddening when you’re logged in correctly but you can’t find your child’s account and see only your name.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
I’ve come to think of it as a practical, action-oriented cousin of intuitive eating, a framework I find genuinely generous but occasionally maddening in its abstraction.
From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2026
To finally get inside the Archives after all this time and not be able to find any of the answers I was looking for was maddening.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
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.
