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Webster 1913 Edition


Bedlam

Bed′lam

,
Noun.
[See
Bethlehem
.]
1.
A place appropriated to the confinement and care of the insane; a madhouse.
Abp. Tillotson.
2.
An insane person; a lunatic; a madman.
[Obs.]
Let’s get the
bedlam
to lead him.
Shakespeare
3.
Any place where uproar and confusion prevail.

Bed′lam

,
Adj.
Belonging to, or fit for, a madhouse.
“The bedlam, brainsick duchess.”
Shak.

Webster 1828 Edition


Bedlam

BED'LAM

,
Noun.
[Corrupted from Bethlehem, the name of a religious house in London, afterward converted into a hospital for lunatics.]
1.
A mad house; a place appropriated for lunatics.]
2.
A madman; a lunatic; one who lives in Bedlam.
3.
A place of uproar.

BED'LAM

,
Adj.
Belonging to a mad house; fit for a mad house.

Definition 2024


bedlam

bedlam

English

Noun

bedlam (plural bedlams)

  1. A place or situation of chaotic uproar, and where confusion prevails.
    • 1872: John Bunyan, The Complete Works of John Bunyan, p 133
      Some of the wards were veritable "bedlams," and dis-charged patients have told of abuses practiced in them of which the mere recital causes a shudder.
    • 2002: Mark L. Friedman, Everyday Crisis Management, p 134
      The outside of the Hyatt was bedlam. There was a group of more than a hundred injured people on the circular drive in front of the hotel.
  2. (obsolete) An insane person; a lunatic; a madman.
    • Shakespeare
      Let's get the bedlam to lead him.
  3. (obsolete) A lunatic asylum; a madhouse.
    • 1720: Archbishop Tillotson, The works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, p 43
      But if any man should profess to believe these things, and yet allow himself in any known wickedness, such a one should be put into bedlam.

Translations

References

  • bedlam in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

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