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Mad vs Insensate - What's the difference?

mad | insensate | Related terms |

As adjectives the difference between mad and insensate

is that mad is insane; crazy, mentally deranged while insensate is having no sensation or consciousness; unconscious; inanimate.

As verbs the difference between mad and insensate

is that mad is to madden, to anger, to frustrate while insensate is to render insensate; to deprive of sensation or consciousness.

As an adverb mad

is intensifier; to a large degree; extremely; exceedingly; very; unbelievably.

As an acronym MAD

is mutually assured destruction.

As a noun insensate is

one who is insensate.

mad

English

Adjective

(madder)
  • Insane; crazy, mentally deranged.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I have heard my grandsire say full oft, / Extremity of griefs would make men mad .
  • Angry, annoyed.
  • * , chapter=6
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man.}}
  • Wildly confused or excited.
  • to be mad with terror, lust, or hatred
  • * Bible, Jer. 1. 88
  • It is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.
  • * 1787: The Fair Syrian, R. Bage, p.314
  • My brother, quiet as a cat, seems perfectly contented with the internal feelings of his felicity. The Marquis, mad as a kitten, is all in motion to express it, from tongue to heel.
  • Extremely foolish or unwise; irrational; imprudent.
  • Extremely enthusiastic about; crazy about; infatuated with; overcome with desire for.
  • (of animals) Abnormally ferocious or furious; or, rabid, affected with rabies.
  • (slang, chiefly Northeastern US) Intensifier, signifies an abundance or high quality of a thing; , much or many.
  • (of a compass needle) Having impaired polarity.
  • Usage notes

    While within the United States and Canada, the word mad'' ''does'' generally imply ''anger'' rather than insanity, such usage is still considered informal. Furthermore, if one is described as having "gone mad" or "went mad", this will unquestionably be taken as denoting ''insanity''''', and not anger. Meanwhile, if one "is mad at" something or has "been mad about" something, it will be assumed that they are '''''angered'' rather than insane. In addition, if the word is understood as being used literally, it will most likely be taken as meaning "insane". Also, in addition to the former, such derivatives as "madness", "madman", "madhouse" and "madly" ''purely denote insanity, irrespective of whether one is in the Commonwealth or in the United States. Lastly, within Commonwealth countries other than Canada, mad'' typically implies the ''insane'' or ''crazy'' sense more so than the ''angry sense.

    Synonyms

    * (insane) See also * (angry) See also * wicked, mighty, kinda, , hella.

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (slang, New England, New York, and, UK, dialect) Intensifier; to a large degree; extremely; exceedingly; very; unbelievably.
  • He was driving mad slow.
    It's mad hot today.
    He seems mad keen on her.

    Synonyms

    * hella; helluv;

    Derived terms

    * mad as a hatter * madden * madding * madhouse * madly

    Verb

    (madd)
  • To madden, to anger, to frustrate.
  • * c''. 1595 , (William Shakespeare), '' , Act V Scene 5:
  • This musick mads me, let it sound no more.
  • *, I.2.4.iv:
  • He that mads others, if he were so humoured, would be as mad himself, as much grieved and tormented […].

    insensate

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having no sensation or consciousness; unconscious; inanimate.
  • * 1816 , , Diodati :
  • Since thus divided — equal must it be
    If the deep barrier be of earth, or sea;
    It may be both — but one day end it must
    In the dark union of insensate dust.
  • * 1928 , , "Moriturus":
  • If I might be
    Insensate matter
    With sensate me
    Sitting within,
    Harking and prying,
    I might begin
    To dicker with dying.
  • Senseless; foolish; irrational.
  • * 1818 , , Rob Roy , ch. 13:
  • [T]he sot, the gambler, the bully, the jockey, the insensate fool, were a thousand times preferable to Rashleigh.
  • * 1854 , , Hard Times , ch. 13:
  • Stupidly dozing, or communing with her incapable self about nothing, she sat for a little while with her hands at her ears. . . . Finally, she laid her insensate grasp upon the bottle that had swift and certain death in it, and, before his eyes, pulled out the cork with her teeth.
  • * 1913 , , Chance , ch. 6:
  • [T]he romping girl teased her . . . and was always trying to pick insensate quarrels with her about some "fellow" or other.
  • * 1918 , , The False Faces , ch. 12:
  • But in his insensate passion for revenge upon one who had all but murdered him, he had forgotten all else but the moment's specious opportunity.
  • Unfeeling, heartless, cruel, insensitive.
  • * 1847 , , The Tenant of Wildfell Hall ,ch. 36:
  • I was cold-hearted, hard, insensate .
  • * 1904 , , A Man's Woman , ch. 6:
  • That insensate , bestial determination, iron-hearted, iron-strong, had beaten down opposition, had carried its point.
  • * 1917 , , The Adventures of Jimmie Dale , ch. 8:
  • . . . the most cold-blooded, callous murders and robberies, the work, on the face of it, of a well-organized band of thugs, brutal, insensate , little better than fiends.
  • (medicine, physiology) Not responsive to sensory stimuli.
  • * 1958 June, Edward B. Schlesinger, "Trigeminal Neuralgia," American Journal of Nursing , vol. 58, no. 6, p. 854:
  • If the ophthalmic branch is cut the patient must be told about the hazards of having an insensate cornea.
  • * 2004 Aug. 1, Jeff G. van Baal, "Surgical Treatment of the Infected Diabetic Foot," Clinical Infectious Diseases , vol. 39, p. S126:
  • The presence of severe pain with a deep plantar foot infection in a diabetic patient is often the first alarming symptom, especially in a patient with a previously insensate foot.
  • * 2005 Feb. 5, "Minerva," BMJ: British Medical Journal , vol. 330, no. 7486, p. 316:
  • The innocuous trauma of high pressure jets and bubble massage to the insensate breast and back areas had caused the bruising seen in the picture.

    Antonyms

    * (having no sensation or consciousness) sentient

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • One who is insensate.
  • * 1873 , , A Pair of Blue Eyes , ch. 22:
  • Here, at any rate, hostility did not assume that slow and sickening form. It was a cosmic agency, active, lashing, eager for conquest: determination; not an insensate standing in the way.

    Verb

    (insensat)
  • (rare) To render insensate; to deprive of sensation or consciousness.
  • References

    *

    Anagrams

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