mad·wom·an

(măd′wo͝om′ən)

1. A woman who is mentally deranged.

2. A woman who behaves in a violently destructive way: a madwoman who stabbed several people on a bus.

3. A woman who behaves in an energetic, uncontrolled way: a madwoman on the drums; is a madwoman when driving during rush-hour traffic.

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.

madwoman

(ˈmædwʊmən)

n, pl -women

a woman who is insane, esp one who behaves violently; lunatic

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

mad•wo•man

(ˈmædˌwʊm ən)

n., pl. -wom•en.

a woman who is or appears to be insane.

[1400–50]

usage: See -woman.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

madwoman - a woman lunatic

lunatic, madman, maniac - an insane person

Translations

norica

madwoman

[ˈmædwʊmən] N (madwomen (pl)) → loca f

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

madwoman

[ˈmædwʊmən] n → folle f, hystérique f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

madwoman

n → Verrückte f

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

madwoman

[ˈmædˌwʊmən] n (-women (pl)) → pazza, folle f

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

The servants had better be warned beforehand, in case of this adventuress or madwoman, whichever she may be, attempting to make her way into the house."

"In other words," Lady Janet remarked, "a madwoman is in my house, and I am expected to receive her!"

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Giry had bowed herself out, with the dignity that never deserted her, the manager told the inspector that they had decided to dispense with that old madwoman's services; and, when he had gone in his turn, they instructed the acting-manager to make up the inspector's accounts.

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Before she could add another word, Lady Montbarry sprang from the sofa with the stealthy suddenness of a cat--seized her by both shoulders-- and shook her with the strength and frenzy of a madwoman. 'You lie!

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Her mother, the Creole, was both a madwoman and a drunkard!--as I found out after I had wed the daughter: for they were silent on family secrets before.

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She was almost like a madwoman, with excitement and ecstasy, whenever I came.

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"Come, now, old madwoman," began the commander again, "do not lie.

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I sat where Richard put me, and tried to listen, and looked about me; but there seemed to be no reality in the whole scene except poor little Miss Flite, the madwoman, standing on a bench and nodding at it.

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He referred her to Count Fosco's letter, and to what she had herself told him of the personal resemblance between Anne and his deceased niece, and he positively declined to admit to his presence, even for one minute only, a madwoman, whom it was an insult and an outrage to have brought into his house at all.

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She was kissing and hugging Sonia like a madwoman. The children, too, were embracing Sonia on all sides, and Polenka--though she did not fully understand what was wrong--was drowned in tears and shaking with sobs, as she hid her pretty little face, swollen with weeping, on Sonia's shoulder.

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Gummidge in the background, clapping her hands like a madwoman.

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The timing of these changes in the representation of madness, the ascendency of the sexually aggressive madwoman and the disappearance of the physically aggressive male lunatic, was overdetermined by the conjunction of a complex series of events and developments in the last decades of the eighteenth century.

The feminization of madness in visual representation