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craze

noun
/kɹeɪz/

Etymology

From Middle English crasen (“to crush, break, break to pieces, shatter, craze”), from Old Norse *krasa (“to shatter”), ultimately imitative. Cognate with Scots krass (“to crush, squeeze, wrinkle”), Icelandic krasa (“to crackle”), Norwegian krasa (“to shatter, crush”), Swedish krasa (“to crack, crackle”), Danish krase (“to crack, crackle”), Faroese kras (“small pieces”).

  1. derived from *krasa✻ — “to shatter”
  2. inherited from crasen — “to crush, break, break to pieces, shatter, craze”

Definitions

  1. A strong habitual desire or fancy.

  2. A temporary passion or infatuation, as for some new amusement, pursuit, or fashion

    A temporary passion or infatuation, as for some new amusement, pursuit, or fashion; a fad.

    • Winemaking was a huge craze in the 1970s, when affordable package holidays to the continent gave people a taste for winedrinking, but the recession made it hard to afford off-license prices back home.

  3. A crack in the glaze or enamel caused by exposure of the pottery to great or irregular…

    A crack in the glaze or enamel caused by exposure of the pottery to great or irregular heat.

  4. ›+ 6 more definitions

    1. Craziness

      Craziness; insanity.

      • ‘A poor fellow with a craze, sir,’ said Mr. Dick, ‘a simpleton, a weak-minded person […] may do what wonderful people may not do. […]’

    2. To weaken

      To weaken; to impair; to render decrepit.

      • till length of years / And ſedentary numneſs craze my limbs

    3. To derange the intellect of

      To derange the intellect of; to render insane.

      • any man […] that is crazed and out of his wits
      • Grief hath crazed my wits.

    4. To be crazed, or to act or appear as one that is crazed

      To be crazed, or to act or appear as one that is crazed; to rave; to become insane.

      • And if Robin should be cast / Sudden from his turfed grave, / And if Marian should have / Once again her forest days, / She would weep and he would craze: [...]

    5. To break into pieces

      To break into pieces; to crush; to grind to powder. See crase.

      • God looking forth will trouble all his Hoſt / And craze thir Chariot wheels:

    6. To crack, as the glazing of porcelain or pottery.

The neighborhood

Derived

becraze, crazeless, craze line, crazen, crazy, witch craze

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at craze. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01craze02fashion03popular04public05happening06fashionable07vogue

A definitional loop anchored at craze. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at craze

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA