madwoman

American  

[mad-woom-uhn] / ˈmædˌwʊm ən /

noun

plural

madwomen

1. a woman who is or behaves as if insane.

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madwoman British  

/ ˈmædwʊmən /

noun

1. a woman who is insane, esp one who behaves violently; lunatic

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Etymology

Origin of madwoman

1400–50; late Middle English. See mad, woman

Example Sentences

“There’s a fine line between madwoman and dreamer,” Maxine will observe, from the vantage of that line.

From Los Angeles Times

But first, Penny must stop in Santa Barbara to deal with Dr. Pincer, her cantankerous, 82-year-old grandmother, the “family’s private madwoman.”

From Washington Post

Biographer Judith Thurman, writing in the New Yorker in 2001, called Dr. Milford’s biography “one of the big literary events of the feminist new wave — the first liberation of a madwoman from the attic.”

From Washington Post

"My sister, my hilarious, charming, perfect sister: now other. The irate madwoman on the train," Leddy says.

From Fox News

In “Jane Eyre,” the heroine enters a home with a madwoman whose husband has locked her in the attic; Rose is soon troubled by other malevolent forces.

From New York Times

Related Words

• lunatic
• maniac
• psychopath