frantic
Americanadjective
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desperate or wild with excitement, passion, fear, pain, etc.; frenzied.
- Synonyms:
- distraught, disturbed, agitated, overwrought
-
Archaic. insane; mad.
adjective
-
distracted with fear, pain, joy, etc
-
marked by or showing frenzy
frantic efforts
-
archaic insane
Other Word Forms
- frantically adverb
- franticness noun
Etymology
Origin of frantic
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English frantik, frenetik, phrentique (the spelling with a appears in the 14th century but is unexplained), from Old French frenetique ( French frénétique ), from Latin phrenēticus, phrenīticus “mad, delirious,” from Greek phrenētikós, phrenītikós “suffering from inflammation of the brain or delerium” ( phrenitis ( def. ) ); frenzy, -tic
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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.
Where to start making sense of this chaotic, frantic and memorable Boxing Day match?
From BBC
The bustle of the Christmas season means phone calls to loved ones, emails answered in a hurry before scurrying off to see family, and frantic online searches for last-minute presents.
In case you missed it amid the frantic run-up to Christmas, the U.S. government just released its latest batch of economic data.
From MarketWatch
She and another neighbor tried to catch Athena, but the dog, frantic, kept running out of reach, almost getting hit by a car, she said.
From Los Angeles Times
The frantic warnings of a Cosmic Weatherman go unheard as winter, confoundingly, follows spring, and summer arrives as a double cataclysm of fire and floods.
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.
