Bill Hudson
Frederic Lansing / Casper
Search results
The meaning of HYSTERICAL is of, relating to, or marked by hysteria. How to use hysterical in a sentence.
unable to control your emotions or behavior because you are very frightened, excited, etc.: Calm down, you’re getting hysterical. She broke into hysterical laughter (= laughter that is uncontrollable). infml That joke was hysterical (= extremely amusing).
The term hysterical, applied to an individual, can mean that they are emotional, irrationally upset, or frenzied. When applied to a situation not involving panic, hysteria means that that situation is uncontrollably amusing – the connotation being that it invokes hysterical laughter.
adjective. uncontrollably emotional. irrational from fear, emotion, or an emotional shock. causing unrestrained laughter; very funny: Oh, that joke is hysterical! Synonyms: ludicrous, laughable, uproarious, hilarious. Psychoanalysis, Psychiatry. of, relating to, or characterized by hysteria: hysterical psychosis.
1. : a psychoneurosis marked by emotional excitability and disturbances of the psychogenic, sensory, vasomotor, and visceral (see visceral sense 4) functions. 2. : behavior exhibiting overwhelming or unmanageable fear or emotional excess. political hysteria. The plague had caused mass hysteria in the village. Synonyms. agitation. deliriousness.
uncontrollably emotional. irrational from fear, emotion, or an emotional shock. causing unrestrained laughter; very funny: Oh, that joke is hysterical! Synonyms: ludicrous, laughable, uproarious, hilarious. Psychoanalysis, Psychiatry. of, relating to, or characterized by hysteria: hysterical psychosis. causing hysteria.
If someone is hysterical, they cannot control their feelings or behaviour because they are extremely frightened, angry, excited, etc.: hysterical laughter. As soon as Wendy saw the blood, she became hysterical.
adjective. /hɪˈsterɪkl/ in a state of extreme excitement, and crying, laughing, etc. without any control. hysterical screams. a hysterical giggle. He became almost hysterical when I told him. Let's not get hysterical. (disapproving) He thought I was being a hysterical female. Extra Examples. Oxford Collocations Dictionary.
Hysterical comes from the medical Latin word hystericus, which described a female neurotic condition, thought to be caused by a dysfunction of the uterus. Hysterical is still used today by psychiatrists, though in a broader way, to describe someone suffering from a psychological stress condition.
noun. an uncontrollable outburst of emotion or fear, often characterized by irrationality, laughter, weeping, etc. Psychoanalysis. a psychoneurotic disorder characterized by violent emotional outbreaks, disturbances of sensory and motor functions, and various abnormal effects due to autosuggestion. Psychiatry. conversion disorder. hysteria.
