Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A temporary state of mental confusion and fluctuating consciousness resulting from high fever, intoxication, shock, or other causes. It is characterized by anxiety, disorientation, hallucinations, delusions, and incoherent speech.
  • noun A state of uncontrolled excitement or emotion.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A disordered state, more or less temporary, of the mental faculties, occurring during illness, especially in febrile conditions.
  • noun Violent excitement; exaggerated enthusiasm; mad rapture.
  • noun A hallucination or delusion; a creation of the imagination.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) A state in which the thoughts, expressions, and actions are wild, irregular, and incoherent; mental aberration; a roving or wandering of the mind, -- usually dependent on a fever or some other disease, and so distinguished from mania, or madness.
  • noun Strong excitement; wild enthusiasm; madness.
  • noun (Med.) a violent delirium induced by the excessive and prolonged use of intoxicating liquors.
  • noun (Med.) a variety of delirium following injury.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A temporary mental state with a sudden onset, usually reversible, including symptoms of confusion, inability to concentrate, disorientation, anxiety, and sometimes hallucinations. Causes can include dehydration, drug intoxication, and severe infection.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a usually brief state of excitement and mental confusion often accompanied by hallucinations
  • noun state of violent mental agitation

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin dēlīrium, from dēlīrāre, to be deranged : dē-, de- + līra, furrow; see leis- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Latin dēlīrium ("derangement”, “madness"), from dēlīrō ("I am deranged").

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Examples

  • "This is what they call delirium, I guess," he muttered.

    A Study in Scarlet Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir, 1859-1930 1902

  • "This is what they call delirium, I guess" he muttered.

    A Study in Scarlet Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir, 1859-1930 1902

  • "This is what they call delirium, I guess," he muttered.

    A Study in Scarlet Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir, 1859-1930 1902

  • "This is what they call delirium, I guess" he muttered.

    A Study in Scarlet Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir, 1859-1930 1902

  • "This is what they call delirium, I guess," he muttered.

    A Study in Scarlet Arthur Conan Doyle 1894

  • "This is what they call delirium, I guess" he muttered.

    A Study in Scarlet 1887

  • Half in delirium, he began muttering aloud the lines of an anonymous poem Brissenden had been fond of quoting to him.

    Chapter 40 2010

  • It was just as real to me as is the snake beheld by a man in delirium tremens.

    Chapter 11 2010

  • He has spent an uncounted time in delirium since he was landed on the beach at Ringmanu from the Nari, commanded by one Captain Bateman.

    “It was the Golden Fleece ready for the shearing.” 2008

  • But Joe, "soothed and content under the anodyne of delirium," is dragged roughly downtrail by Kah-Chucte and Gowhee.

    “There be things greater than our wisdom, beyond our justice.” 2008

Comments

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  • 'You add the most delightful sense of the macabre to any delirium.' -Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End

    *wink*

    February 20, 2008

  • I have had a curious packet confided to me, containing an immense amount of mauscript, in an inconceivably small space; tales, dramas, poems, romances, written principally by Charlotte, in a hand which is almost impossible to decipher without the aid of a magnifying glass. ... When she gives way to her powers of creation, her fancy and her language alike run riot, sometimes to the very borders of apparent delirium.

    July 10, 2010