Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To cause (a person) to become mentally deranged.
  • transitive verb To cause (a person) to lose intellectual capacity.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Out of one's mind; insane; demented.
  • noun A demented person; one affected by loss of mental capacity.
  • To bring into a state of dementia; destroy the mind of.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb rare To deprive of reason; to make mad.
  • adjective rare Demented; dementate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective obsolete insane, demented
  • noun An insane person, or one afflicted with dementia
  • verb transitive To drive mad; to craze

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Late Latin dēmentāre, from Latin dēmēns, dēment-, senseless : dē-, de- + mēns, mind; see men- in Indo-European roots.]

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