amuck

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“
Looking back over his past, it seemed to him now that for forty years he had been running amuck -- the running-amuck of pure reason.

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. adverb In a frenzy to do violence or kill: rioters running amuck in the streets.
  2. adverb In or into a jumbled or confused state: The plans went amuck.
  3. adverb In or into an uncontrolled state or a state of extreme activity: "This jam-packed area of Honolulu has come to stand for tourist development run amok” (Ila Stanger).
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Examples

  • But here Winterslips had run amuck, and there was no telling what would next be dragged into the light. —  The House Without a Key
  • This might be a native soldier run amuck, and it might be a messenger; but in either case, friend or foe, if there was only one man he could deal with him alone. —  Told in the East
  • Looking back over his past, it seemed to him now that for forty years he had been running amuck -- the running-amuck of pure reason. —  Autumn
  • And here's a promotion run amuck, a gas giveaway in Milwaukee, Wisconsin backfired. —  CNN Transcript Jul 13, 2006
  • "Yes" —  Cold Case
 

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Amuck has been looked up 254 times, favorited 0 times, listed 7 times, and commented on 4 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Malay amok.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. First used in Portuguese form, amouco, amuco, as a noun, a frenzied Malay; afterward amuck, amock, amok, almost exclusively in the phrase run amuck; from Malay amoq, adjective, “engaging furiously in battle, attacking with desperate resolution, rushing in a state of frenzy to the commission of indiscriminate murder: applied to any animal in a state of vicious rage” (Marsden, Malay Dict.).
 

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/əˈmək/
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