Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Containing or resembling barm or yeast; frothy.
- Hence Barmy-brained; empty-headed.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Full of barm or froth; in a ferment.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. informal or slang terms for mentally irregular
- adj. marked by spirited enjoyment
Etymologies
- From Old English beorma ("yeast") (Wiktionary)
- Sense 2, alteration of balmy. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It's also fun to find out, via these collected letters, the types of books and movies Farrell was consuming while writing and editing Troubles: Cold Comfort Farm, Thomas Hardy ( "barmy"), The Garden of Finzi-Continis, Easy Rider.”
“Rules and regulations are never anything other than "barmy" and planning strategies are invariably "Soviet-style".”
“In London, the Foreign Office says the idea of Britain in NAFTA is "barmy," as it would have to pull out of the EU entirely.”
“In a further twist to this story, Baker must know that there is absolutely nothing he, as an MP, can do about changing what he condemns as a "barmy" directive.”
“BIRMINGHAM MEP Mike Nattrass is determined to prove there are no flies on him by rallying against a "barmy" EU directive outlawing pepper from insect traps.”
“Shadow Home Secretary David Davis called the idea "barmy".”
“Mrs Hill described her sacking as "barmy" and said she would be opening a bottle of champagne to celebrate her victory.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“The report colorfully describes Choudary as "barmy," but as is so often the case, the idea of Muslims 'conquering Rome as a prelude to the end of days comes from Muhammad himself.”
“Boris Johnson today slammed "barmy" health and safety rules after a”
“Traditionalists have branded the ban 'barmy', saying that red ink makes it easier for children to spot errors and improve.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘barmy’.
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EN - confusables
Similar words meaning different things
accept, except, adverse, averse, advice, advise, affect, effect, aisle, isle, all together, altogether and 134 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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UK - slang
chin wag, arse about, bollock, starkers, sweet Fanny Adams, skive, shufti, codswallop, rhyming slang, bollocks, nookie, skew-whiff and 208 more...
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Bonkers
List for old and new terms and phrases meaning crazy, nuts, batty, prone to extreme nervousness, etc.
bonkers, crazy, nuts, batty, batchy, bats in the belfry, scatty, crackers, windy, gone crackers, cracked, dingo and 92 more...
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Mots Fous
Describing the demented--as colorfully as possible.
bats in the belfry, out to lunch, daft, stark ravin' mad, unsound, barmy, nuts but nuts, barking, touched, cracked, doolally, potty and 22 more...
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Mentally irregular
Words for the mentally irregular
bonkers, unhinged, batshit crazy, cognitive dissonance, apophenia, undone, loony, unsound, deranged, a bit off the beam, daft, stark ravin' mad and 65 more...
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Oh yeah? You and what army?
For more captains, see the O Captain! My Captain! list.
smarmy, an army of me, colonel sanders, colonel parker, dumbledore's army, major catastrophe, barmy, majordomo, corporal punishment, private eye, private property, private parts and 60 more...
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words 2
janiform, remora, sprat, stoa, sone, lea, scow, atoll, Weltschmerz, barmy, concupiscent, actinic and 18 more...
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Bonkers
crackers, barmy, half-baked, mental, unhinged, barking, cuckoo, cracked, nuts, mad, insane, touched and 24 more...
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britishisms
A tip of my hat to the snarkiest of English dialects. Here here!
Ponce, snog, bloody, barmy, blasted, blooming, bleeding, knackered, poppycock, wanker, tosser, cracked and 52 more...
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The Medley of Me
A jumble of words, sometimes contradictory, that add up to me. I'll probably be adding to this list for some time, because I'm a very complex individual. ;P
male, long-haired, big-eyed, writer, artist, guitarist, songsmith, talespinner, pilot, wannabe barnstormer, gypsy, cuddlesome and 209 more...
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words/phrases I wish I could find mor...
puttin' on the dog, smarty, smarty ha..., murgatroyd, treshstra, puissance, corpuscle, socker kaka, peckish, hullabaloo, salvo, holy guacamole, b..., cascade and 112 more...
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Quaintnesses
For those who wish no words were ever forgotten
opprobrium, tedium, encomium, odium, ire, enmity, beguile, wile, brazen, popinjay, squit, hoity-toity and 1161 more...
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Miss Sunshine
she's such a joy.
bereaved, bitter, cheerless, dejected, depressed, despairing, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, downcast and 405 more...
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elvesoncrack's Words
lachrymose, blustering, fjord, chihuahua, chiffon, catalytic, stile, gefilte, prosh, thwart, ralph, ickle and 379 more...
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CCW
Commonly Confused Words
wreath, wreathe, titillate, titivate, proscribe, prescribe, pedal, peddle, mettle, metal, palette, palate and 132 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for barmy.
PossibleUnderscore I'm surprised no one has pointed out how similar this word sounds to Barney. Once I live to see the day Barney goes barmy, I can die peacefully. ;-) Jul 25, 2009
brtom ... that miscible rendering (undistill’d) of sheer barmy Discovery up against hare-brain’d Gossip ...
John Latta, Isola di Rifiuti Dec 19, 2006