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madhouse

US/ˈmædˌhaʊs/
nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,344 of 15,258leans spokeninformal · an editor’s judgement

Other forms: madhouses

A madhouse is a place where noise and confusion reign. A kitchen at eight in the morning, or an office before a deadline.

The everyday sense is entirely figurative and cheerfully exaggerated, so calling your house a madhouse is a complaint nobody takes literally. The original sense was a genuine institution for people with mental illness, and that use is offensive now for good reason, since the word treated illness as spectacle. English has largely retired it in that meaning. Bedlam, from a real London hospital, has followed exactly the same path.

Definitions of madhouse

  1. 1nounmadhouseA place full of noise, confusion and disorder.B2

    “The shop was an absolute madhouse on Christmas Eve.”

Where it comes from

From mad + house.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 4 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word