FRANTIC

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does frantic mean? 

• FRANTIC (adjective)
  The adjective FRANTIC has 2 senses:

1. excessively agitated; distraught with fear or other violent emotion

2. marked by uncontrolled excitement or emotion

  Familiarity information: FRANTIC used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FRANTIC (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Excessively agitated; distraught with fear or other violent emotion

Synonyms:

frantic; frenetic; frenzied; phrenetic

Context example:

a frenzied look in his eye

Similar:

agitated (troubled emotionally and usually deeply)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Marked by uncontrolled excitement or emotion

Synonyms:

delirious; excited; frantic; mad; unrestrained

Context example:

a mad whirl of pleasure

Similar:

wild (marked by extreme lack of restraint or control)

 Context examples 

My poor mother was half frantic."

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

It made him frantic, this clinging, dragging weight.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The face had vanished, but presently it was up again, more frantic than before.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I shook my fists at Jip, who was as frantic as myself.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Van Helsing is simply frantic about it, and I am at my wits' end.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

“Corcoran! Corcoran!” screamed a voice, and I saw a plunge, a struggle, and one frantic figure breaking its way from the rest.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For the first time our eyes rested upon this presentment of the great emperor, which seemed to raise such frantic and destructive hatred in the mind of the unknown.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She turned on him, struggling for speech but too frantic to word the passion that burned in her.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

If any listener had heard me, he would have thought me mad: I pronounced them with such frantic energy.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

They were half-way across the bailey ere the frantic, howling peasants made a movement to stop them.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)