Definitions

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

  • noun A state of violent mental agitation or wild excitement.
  • noun Temporary madness or delirium.
  • noun A mania; a craze.
  • transitive verb To drive into a frenzy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To render frantic; drive to distraction.
  • noun Violent agitation of the mind approaching to temporary derangement of the mental faculties; distraction; delirium; madness.
  • noun Synonyms Mania, Madness, etc. (see insanity); rage, fury, raving.
  • Mad; delirious.

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

  • noun Any violent agitation of the mind approaching to distraction; violent and temporary derangement of the mental faculties; madness; rage.
  • adjective rare Mad; frantic.
  • transitive verb rare To affect with frenzy; to drive to madness.

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

  • noun A state of wild activity or panic.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun state of violent mental agitation

Etymologies

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

[Middle English frenesie, from Old French, from Medieval Latin phrenēsia, from Latin phrenēsis, back-formation from phrenēticus, delirious; see frenetic.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin phrenesis, from Ancient Greek *φρένησις (phrensis), a later equivalent of φρενῖτις (phrenitis, "inflammation of the brain"): see frantic and frenetic.

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Examples

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  • "I was far to lost in my own frenzyof anticipation to notice much of what she said." - Twilight, Stephanie Meyer, pg.145

    December 1, 2010