Craze

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪz

Alternative forms

• crase, craise, craize dialectal

Origin

From Middle English crasen ("to crush, break, break to pieces, shatter, craze"), from Old Norse *krasa ("to shatter"). Cognate with Danish krase ("to crack, crackle"), Swedish krasa ("to crack, crackle"), Norwegian krasa ("to shatter, crush"), Icelandic krasa ("to crackle").

Full definition of craze

Noun

1. Craziness; insanity.
2. A strong habitual desire or fancy; a crotchet.
3. A temporary passion or infatuation, as for same new amusement, pursuit, or fashion; as, the bric-a-brac craze; the aesthetic craze.

Verb

1. To weaken; to impair; to render decrepit.
• MiltonTill length of years,
  And sedentary numbness, craze my limbs.
2. To derange the intellect of; to render insane.
• Tillotsonany man ... that is crazed and out of his wits
• ShakespeareGrief hath crazed my wits.
3. To be crazed, or to act or appear as one that is crazed; to rave; to become insane.
• KeatsShe would weep and he would craze.
4. (transitive, intransitive, archaic) To break into pieces; to crush; to grind to powder. See crase.
• MiltonGod, looking forth, will trouble all his host,
  And craze their chariot wheels.
5. (transitive, intransitive) To crack, as the glazing of porcelain or pottery.