bed·lam

(bĕd′ləm)

1. A place or situation of noisy uproar and confusion.

2. often Bedlam Archaic An insane asylum.

[Middle English Bedlem, Hospital of Saint Mary of Bethlehem, an institution in London for the mentally ill .]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bedlam

(ˈbɛdləm)

1. a noisy confused place or situation; state of uproar: his speech caused bedlam.

2. (Psychiatry) archaic a lunatic asylum; madhouse

[C13 bedlem, bethlem, after the Hospital of St Mary of Bethlehem in London]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

bed•lam

(ˈbɛd ləm)

n.

1. a scene or state of wild uproar and confusion.

2. Archaic. an insane asylum or madhouse.

[after Bedlam, a familiar name for the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem in London, a lunatic asylum from c1400]

bedlam

- The word bedlam is a contraction of Bethlehem, a hospital in London that became a lunatic asylum.

bedlam

noun pandemonium, noise, confusion, chaos, turmoil, clamour, furore, uproar, commotion, rumpus, babel, tumult, hubbub, ruction (informal), hullabaloo, hue and cry, ruckus (informal) He is causing bedlam at the hotel.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

blázinec

kaospostyrvirvar

Tollhaus

chahut

tébolyda

hávaîi

caos confusione manicomio pandemonio bolgia

beprotnamis

juceklistrakomāja

galehus hurlumhei spetakkel

tımarhane

喧闹的景象混乱的场所

bedlam

[ˈbedləm] N

1. (= uproar) → alboroto m
it was sheer bedlam → la confusión era total
bedlam broke out → se armó la de San Quintín

2. (Hist) (= asylum) → manicomio m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

bedlam

[ˈbɛdləm] n (= noise) → chahut m (= chaos) → cirque m
It's bedlam in here! → Quel cirque là-dedans! bed linen n → linge m de lit

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

bedlam

n (fig: = uproar) → Chaos nt; in the classroom it was absolute bedlam → in der Klasse ging es zu wie im Irrenhaus

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

bedlam

[ˈbɛdləm] n → baraonda

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

bedlam

(ˈbedləm) noun

(a place of) noise, confusion or uproar. Their house is bedlam.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Suddenly, from a distance, came a bedlam of noise that made Michael prick up his ears and bristle with premonition of fresh disaster.

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All the car was singing a score of songs at once, and Bert, his head pillowed on Mary's breast with her arms around him, started "On the Banks of the Wabash." And he sang the song through, undeterred by the bedlam of two general fights, one on the adjacent platform, the other at the opposite end of the car, both of which were finally subdued by special policemen to the screams of women and the crash of glass.

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The poor lady started from her sleep with as much amazement as terror, and beheld at her bedside a figure which might very well be supposed to have escaped out of Bedlam. Such wildness and confusion were in the looks of Mr Western; who no sooner saw the lady than he started back, shewing sufficiently by his manner, before he spoke, that this was not the person sought after.

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Perhaps it was that which made me feel lonely, since I was neither masked, nor disguised, nor yelling, nor in any other way in harmony with the bedlam element of life.

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So we raced along, behind us a howling, screaming bedlam of wrathful Greeks, Collinsville ahead, and bullets spat-spatting all around us.

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"Really, this table is getting to be more and more like Bedlam every day, with everybody talking at once.

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There was a muleteer to every donkey and a dozen volunteers beside, and they banged the donkeys with their goad sticks, and pricked them with their spikes, and shouted something that sounded like "Sekki- yah!" and kept up a din and a racket that was worse than Bedlam itself.

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really, then, you want them to send us both to Bedlam!"

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He and the lions had been making so much noise that neither could hear anything above their concerted bedlam, and so it was that Tarzan did not hear the great bulk bearing down upon him from behind until an instant before it was upon him, and then he turned to see Buto, the rhinoceros, his little, pig eyes blazing, charging madly toward him and already so close that escape seemed impossible; yet so perfectly were mind and muscles coordinated in this unspoiled, primitive man that almost simultaneously with the sense perception of the threatened danger he wheeled and hurled his spear at Buto's chest.

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The Tahitians, back from their fishing and grinning at the bedlam of the compound, entered into the joke.

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The cessation of buying had turned the Stock Exchange into a bedlam, and down all the line of stocks the bears were smashing.

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He dissected beauty in his crowded little bedroom laboratory, where cooking smells alternated with the outer bedlam of the Silva tribe; and, having dissected and learned the anatomy of beauty, he was nearer being able to create beauty itself.

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Noun	1.	bedlam - a state of extreme confusion and disorder chaos, pandemonium, topsy-turvydom, topsy-turvyness confusion - disorder resulting from a failure to behave predictably; "the army retreated in confusion" balagan - a word for chaos or fiasco borrowed from modern Hebrew (where it is a loan word from Russian); "it was utter and complete balagan!"
	2.	Bedlam - pejorative terms for an insane asylum booby hatch, crazy house, cuckoo's nest, funny farm, funny house, loony bin, madhouse, nut house, nuthouse, sanatorium, snake pit mental home, mental hospital, mental institution, psychiatric hospital, insane asylum, asylum, institution - a hospital for mentally incompetent or unbalanced person