LIKE MAD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does like mad mean? 

• LIKE MAD (adverb)
  The adverb LIKE MAD has 1 sense:

1. (informal) with great speed or effort or intensity; used for emphasis

  Familiarity information: LIKE MAD used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LIKE MAD (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(informal) with great speed or effort or intensity; used for emphasis

Synonyms:

like crazy; like hell; like mad; like sin; like the devil; like thunder

Context example:

fought like the devil

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

 Context examples 

The Portuguese held his tongue like a brick, and walked the plank, while the jolly tars cheered like mad.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The man and woman are like mad. We start earlier in the morning, we travel later at night.

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

His great chest was low to the ground, his head forward and down, while his feet were flying like mad, the claws scarring the hard-packed snow in parallel grooves.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Then he saw himself, sitting forward in the canoe as he had often sat in the past, dipping a paddle that waited Moti's word to dig in like mad when the turquoise wall of the great breaker rose behind them.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)