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
Shares of Chili’s owner Brinker International rose 11% to $245.89 as the casual dining chain’s Triple Dipper appetizer craze continued to drive sales growth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
“San Francisco right now is having this moment around AI and the billboards. ... The overall craze around the industry has become a cultural moment.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Apple has largely sat on the sidelines of the AI spending craze while the rest of the “Magnificent Seven” tech giants continue to increase their capex levels.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
Housing perhaps seventy thousand souls, Wari was a dense, alley-packed craze of walled-off temples, hidden courtyards, royal tombs, and apartments up to six stories tall.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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 company went public at the beginning of October and has positioned itself at the crossroads of two crazes: the build-out of more data centers to power artificial intelligence and a potential U.S. nuclear-power resurgence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2025
These technologies have the potential to generate speculative investment crazes that cost investors dearly, as we saw during the “meme stock” frenzy of 2021.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2024
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
Either way, reluctance to associate either Salinger or his most indelible creation with crazed murderers meant keeping their own wounds at arms’ length.
From Salon ● Jul. 25, 2026
A crazed newscaster prompts his viewers to do a wild thing: open their windows and shout, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
He wasn’t a crazed football fan or a flighty 30-something bachelor, but an outdoorsman who loved mountain biking away from the city.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 1, 2026
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
Behind him, confiscated treasures are crammed to the ceiling: rolled tapestries, grandfather clocks, armoires, and giant landscape paintings crazed with cracks.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
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
Hard refractory clays often remain porous and are a fruitful source of crazing and breaking.
From Pottery, for Artists Craftsmen & Teachers by George J. Cox
If ever an irritating, aggravating, crazing, exasperating, provoking fretting enraging, "I dare you," was uttered, it was in Leonore's manner as she said this.
From The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of Him by Paul Leicester Ford
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.
