mad as a hatter en · ADJ
Pronunciation
Etymology
First recorded 1829. Of uncertain origin, though usually explained as referring to hat-makers suffering from Erethism due to handling mercury-contaminated felt. Derivation from Old English ātor (“poison”) or its descendant English atter lacks evidence.
Meanings
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(not-comparable) Crazy or demented.
He's a very good fellow, but as mad as a hatter. He's called Madman, you know. And never was such a fellow for getting all sorts of rum things about him. He tamed two snakes last half, and used to carry them about in his pocket; and I'll be bound he's got some hedgehogs and rats in his cupboard now, and no one knows what besides.
1857, [Thomas Hughes], chapter III, in Tom Brown’s School Days. […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC:If you ask me that woman's as mad as a hatter.
1939, Agatha Christie, chapter 11, in And Then There Were None:Sometimes, I feel sure he is as mad as a hatter; and then, just as he is at his maddest, I find there is method in his madness.
1920 October, Agatha Christie, “The Arrest”, in The Mysterious Affair at Styles […], New York, N.Y.; London: Grosset & Dunlap, published March 1927, page 218:"I think he’d be as mad as a hatter at your insinuation that he would invite any of his wives, if all I hear of him is true; and what I’ve heard, Wolsey has told me."
1895, John Kendrick Bangs, chapter 7, in A House-Boat on the Styx:Once Lord John passed across his newspaper, upon the margin of which he had written in pencil, "Poor devil! Mad as a hatter." No doubt it was very eccentric, and yet the performance struck me as extraordinarily clever and amusing.
1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Blurring of the Lines”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, page 31:I think Adam Wayne, who is as mad as a hatter, worth more than a million of you. But you have the force, and, I admit, the common sense, and he is lost.
1904, Gilbert K[eith] Chesterton, “The Experiment of Mr. Buck”, in The Napoleon of Notting Hill, London; New York, N.Y.: John Lane, The Bodley Head, →OCLC, book III, page 176:
Relateds
Synonyms
insane · loopy · disturbed · nutty · mad as a March hare
Translations (18)
es más loco que una cabra (demented or crazy) · sv spritt språngande galen (demented or crazy) · fi pähkähullu (demented or crazy) · ru спя́тивший (demented or crazy) · hu teljesen bolond (demented or crazy) · it matto da legare (demented or crazy) · nl stapelgek (demented or crazy) · sv skogstokig (demented or crazy) · it fuori di testa (demented or crazy) · nl gek als een deur (demented or crazy) · it fuori come un balcone (demented or crazy) · hu sült bolond (demented or crazy) · is bandvitlaus (demented or crazy) · ru вы́живший из ума́ (demented or crazy) · ru не в своём уме́ (demented or crazy) · es como una chota (demented or crazy) · es como una regadera (demented or crazy) · sv skvatt galen (demented or crazy)