LUNATIC

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does lunatic mean? 

• LUNATIC (noun)
  The noun LUNATIC has 2 senses:

1. an insane person

2. a reckless impetuous irresponsible person

  Familiarity information: LUNATIC used as a noun is rare.

• LUNATIC (adjective)
  The adjective LUNATIC has 1 sense:

1. insane and believed to be affected by the phases of the moon

  Familiarity information: LUNATIC used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LUNATIC (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An insane person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

lunatic; madman; maniac

Hypernyms ("lunatic" is a kind of...):

diseased person; sick person; sufferer (a person suffering from an illness)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lunatic"):

crazy; looney; loony; nutcase; weirdo (someone deranged and possibly dangerous)

bedlamite (an archaic term for a lunatic)

pyromaniac (a person with a mania for setting things on fire)

madwoman (a woman lunatic)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A reckless impetuous irresponsible person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

daredevil; harum-scarum; hothead; lunatic; madcap; swashbuckler

Hypernyms ("lunatic" is a kind of...):

adventurer; venturer (a person who enjoys taking risks)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lunatic"):

tearaway (a reckless and impetuous person)

• LUNATIC (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Insane and believed to be affected by the phases of the moon

Synonyms:

lunatic; moonstruck

Similar:

insane (afflicted with or characteristic of mental derangement)

Domain usage:

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

Derivation:

lunacy (foolish or senseless behavior)

lunacy (obsolete terms for legal insanity)

 Context examples 

His lunatic wife: and you have nothing to do with him: you dare not speak to him or seek his presence.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

How well the man reasoned; lunatics always do within their own scope.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I think he had gone a bit off his head at the suddenness of it, for he raged and cursed at them like a lunatic.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In neither case were there any signs which could give us a clue as to the criminal or lunatic who had done the mischief.

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

It was occupied, but only by a poor lunatic gentleman, and the people who took care of him.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I am almost a lunatic, my head is so turned with joy.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Jo glanced at the sheet and saw a pleasing illustration composed of a lunatic, a corpse, a villain, and a viper.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Is it not possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an outbreak?

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

I saw, too, that eccentricity was, as my uncle had told me, the fashion; and if the folk upon the Continent look upon us even to this day as being a nation of lunatics, it is no doubt a tradition handed down from the time when the only travellers whom they were likely to see were drawn from the class which I was now meeting.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Don't you know that I am sane and earnest now; that I am no lunatic in a mad fit, but a sane man fighting for his soul?

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)