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

Anagrams

• ambled
• beldam
• blamed