Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Behaving or acting impulsively or rashly; wild.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A person who acts madly or wildly; a flighty or harebrained person; one who indulges in frolics.
- Pertaining to or resembling a madcap; wild; harum-scarum.
Wiktionary
- adj. impulsive, hasty or reckless; capricious.
- n. An impulsive, hasty, capricious person.
- n. obsolete An insane person, a lunatic.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Inclined to wild sports; delighting in rash, absurd, or dangerous amusements.
- adj. Wild; reckless.
- n. A person of wild behavior; an excitable, rash, violent person.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. characterized by undue haste and lack of thought or deliberation
- n. a reckless impetuous irresponsible person
Etymologies
- 1580s, mad + cap (“head”), literally “crazy head”. Original literal sense “lunatic, crazy person”, now used figuratively. (Wiktionary)
- mad + cap1, head. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Aug. 3 Bloomberg -- Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said China's central bank will monitor U.S. efforts to tackle its debt as the official Chinese news agency criticized what it called the "madcap" brinksmanship of American lawmakers.”
“How much more so must it be to papa, though he likes you, and when you are near him would perhaps, in a fit of unworldliness, be almost as reckless as the creature he calls madcap and would rather call countess.”
“It referred to a "madcap farce of brinksmanship" before the agreement was reached.”
“a fit of unworldliness, be almost as reckless as the creature he calls madcap and would rather call countess.”
“If a story every deserved the word madcap, it is Steven Gould's 'Peaches for Mad Molly'.”
Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror: The 1989 Annual World's Best SF - Donald A. Wollheim
“The fool of whom Mr. Razumov had thought was the rich and festive student known as madcap Kostia.”
“So far more than $300 dollars has been raised for what Mr. Raymond refers to as a "madcap enterprise," towards a goal of $1,000.”
“So far more than $300 has been raised for what Mr. Raymond refers to as a "madcap enterprise," towards a goal of $1,000.”
“The overall tone is "madcap," which does fit the off-kilter medical emergency side of it.”
“And reading the description of this one, you realize that "madcap" and "insane" don't actually do justice to Millar.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘madcap’.
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supernatural creatures according to M...
Turned this up on etymonline.com (link). It's amazing.
Hobbit (n.)
1937, coined in the fantasy tales of J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973).
On a blank leaf I scrawled: 'In a hole...ghost, boggle, bloody-bones, spirit, demon, ignis fatuus, brownie, bugbear, black dog, specter, shellycoat, scarecrow and 186 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Chennessy's Words
philistine, messianic, dyad, cult, bourgeois, blot, ploy, polyglot, lingua franca, cumbersome, lumber, petit-bourgeois and 446 more...
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imogen's Words
coagitate, cloche, harum-scarum, foxglove, cryptolect, cant, roux, angora, duff, ulysse, schadenfreude, pepperpot and 315 more...
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Necessary?
"Words are very..."
The above was the original description for this list. Unfortunately, it doesn't convey much about the list contents.
I'm leaving you to draw your own conclusions abo...supererogation, fruitcake, unbeknownst, melifluous, bane, cavy, unnecessary, lyrical, question, undertow, weapon, arduous and 200 more...
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enjoidooks's Words
rastafari, facetious, desultory, dubiously, ineluctable, incarnadine, diapason, alembic, empathy, feckless, transcendence, thus and 190 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, M
metamerism, malady, margin, marauder, maverick, mercury, mirth, mandible, macerate, meteor, manumission, mica and 292 more...
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dienekes's Words
chutzpah, lexicon, intrepid, pedagogical, schlemiel, schism, erudite, anathema, pugilist, jaunty, paradigm, automaton and 949 more...
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Fun
harangue, quixotic, persnickety, lachrymose, kerfuffle, zephyr, chthonic, vixen, fiend, scoundrel, cricket, belfry and 193 more...
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persnickety parlance
behoove, ebullient, insouciant, insipient, froth, quandary, quixotic, tendril, maktub, furrow, furl, anastrophe and 1076 more...
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the favourites
These are words that I like; either because they sound amazing, mean pretty things, seem particularly suited to their assigned definition, or just have good mouthfeel. The best ones embody some com...
tatterdemalion, alpenglow, dapple, defenestrate, wacky, lissom, lithe, whisper, madcap, magniloquent, whimsy, sallow and 208 more...
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Permutations
There are 17576 different sequences of three letters (26 x 26 x 26). How many of them occur in words? General rules of engagement: mononyms only, lower case preferred to upper case, short preferred...
aaargh, niqaabi, Isaac, raad, baaed, haaf, laager, aah, kamaaina, Naajaat, aak, aalii and 637 more...
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gorgonglare's list
the best
zeppelin, ion, laconic, serendipity, cataract, saturnine, syzygy, cinnabar, bistro, lithium, paroxysm, scion and 694 more...
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head wear
head-where: head-ware: head (at)tire
sallet, kangol, halo, peruke, cockade, tam, beret, helmet, hood, circlet, phylactery, chignon and 51 more...
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♥
These words I LIKE.
laconic, blackrom, yandere, sundry, equivocal, tetracycline, raze, scapegoat, impala, perspicacity, quandary, viscous and 34 more...
Tweets
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