HYSTERICAL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does hysterical mean? 

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

1. characterized by or arising from psychoneurotic hysteria

2. marked by excessive or uncontrollable emotion

  Familiarity information: HYSTERICAL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HYSTERICAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Characterized by or arising from psychoneurotic hysteria

Synonyms:

hysteric; hysterical

Context example:

hysterical amnesia

Similar:

neurotic; psychoneurotic (affected with emotional disorder)

Derivation:

hysteria (neurotic disorder characterized by violent emotional outbreaks and disturbances of sensory and motor functions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Marked by excessive or uncontrollable emotion

Context example:

a mob of hysterical vigilantes

Similar:

agitated (troubled emotionally and usually deeply)

Derivation:

hysteria (excessive or uncontrollable fear)

hysteria (state of violent mental agitation)

 Context examples 

Summerlee was a bit hysterical, and he laughed till he cried.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was so ridiculous! She felt a hysterical impulse to laugh.

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

I suppose I was hysterical, for I threw myself on my knees and held up my hands to him, and implored him to make my husband well again.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Mary had been hysterical again this morning.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

At the sight of Mr. Utterson, the housemaid broke into hysterical whimpering; and the cook, crying out “Bless God! it’s Mr. Utterson,” ran forward as if to take him in her arms.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I am not hysterical, nor given to fainting.

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

The events of the day, in combination with the twins, if not with the flip, had made Mrs. Micawber hysterical, and she shed tears as she replied: I never will desert Mr. Micawber.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

For two days Rachel Howells had been so ill, sometimes delirious, sometimes hysterical, that a nurse had been employed to sit up with her at night.

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

Their visit was not so still as Miss Ingram's had been: we heard hysterical giggling and little shrieks proceeding from the library; and at the end of about twenty minutes they burst the door open, and came running across the hall, as if they were half-scared out of their wits.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Elinor advised her to lie down again, and for a moment she did so; but no attitude could give her ease; and in restless pain of mind and body she moved from one posture to another, till growing more and more hysterical, her sister could with difficulty keep her on the bed at all, and for some time was fearful of being constrained to call for assistance.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)