semihysterical en · ADJ
Etymology
From semi- + hysterical.
Meanings
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(not-comparable) Somewhat or partly hysterical.
The next four hours passed in a kind of dream. There was a long and semihysterical discussion following Brown’s confirmation, or maybe the discussion wasn’t as long as it seemed; maybe it was just the grim necessity of people chewing over the same information, trying to see it from every possible point of view, working it the way a dog works a bone, trying to get at the marrow.
1980, Stephen King, The Mist, Viking Press: