English

Alternative forms

• wood

Adjective

wode ‎(comparative woder, superlative wodest)

1. (archaic) mad, crazy, insane, possessed, rabid, furious, frantic.
   • a. 1588, Jasper Heywood, quoted in James Petite Andews, The History of Great Britain, published 1806

     My hair stode up, I waxed wode, my synewes all did shake / And, as the fury had me vext, my teeth began to quake.

Etymology 2

See woad

Noun

wode ‎(uncountable)

1. Obsolete spelling of woad

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English wōd, see above.

Noun

wode (uncountable)

1. madness, insanity, an overmastering emotion, rage, fury

   When thei saw hir for wode so wilde Thei did lede hir ... With-oute the toun ... And stoned hir to dethe. — The Laud Troy Book

   At cherche kan god ... yelde þe wyttes of þe wode. — Ayenbite of Inwyt

Verb

wode (third-person singular simple present wodeth, present participle wodende, simple past and past participle woded)

1. To be or go mad; be or go out of one's mind; behave wildly; be frenzied; go out of control.

   Vices woden to destroyen men by wounde of thought. — Chaucer

2. to be or become furious, enraged.

   Whan I ne may my ladi se, The more I am redy to wraththe ... I wode as doth the wylde Se. — Gower

Conjugation

Adverb

wode

1. frantically
2. ferociously, fiercely
3. intensely, furiously

   Lat us to the peple seme Suche as the world may of us deme That wommen loven us for wod. — Chaucer

4. furiously enraged, irate, angry

   He was wod wroth and wold do Thomas ... to deth. — Mirk's Festial: A Collection of Homilies by Johannes Mirkus

   When þe wale kyng wist, he wex wode wroth. — Wars of Alexander

Adjective

wode

1. mad, insane, possessed, furious, frantic, mentally deranged, of unsound mind, out of one's mind.
2. rabid
3. wild, not tamed

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Old English wudu see wood.

Noun

wode

1. wood (material).

Verb

1. To hunt.
2. To take to the woods; hide oneself in the woods (also reflexive: ben woded).

Derived terms

• wodewarde, forester

Descendants

• English: wood

References

• wode in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• Middle English Dictionary