craze

• crase, craise, craize (dialectal)

From Middle English crasen (“to crush, break, break to pieces, shatter, craze”), from Old Norse *krasa (“to shatter”), ultimately imitative.[1]

Cognate with Danish krase (“to crack, crackle”), Swedish krasa (“to crack, crackle”), Norwegian krasa (“to shatter, crush”), Icelandic krasa (“to crackle”).

• IPA^(key): /kɹeɪz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪz

craze (plural crazes)

1. (archaic) craziness; insanity.
   • 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, OCLC 558196156:

     ‘A poor fellow with a craze, sir,’ said Mr. Dick, ‘a simpleton, a weak-minded person […] may do what wonderful people may not do. […] ’

2. A strong habitual desire or fancy.
3. A temporary passion or infatuation, as for some new amusement, pursuit, or fashion; a fad.
   • 2012, Alan Titchmarsh, The Complete Countryman: A User's Guide to Traditional Skills and Lost Crafts

     Winemaking was a huge craze in the 1970s, when affordable package holidays to the continent gave people a taste for winedrinking, but the recession made it hard to afford off-license prices back home.

4. (ceramics) A crack in the glaze or enamel caused by exposure of the pottery to great or irregular heat.

• becraze
• crazy

• fad
• trend

craze (third-person singular simple present crazes, present participle crazing, simple past and past participle crazed)

1. (archaic) To weaken; to impair; to render decrepit.
   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398, lines 571–572, page 39:

     till length of years / And ſedentary numneſs craze my limbs

2. To derange the intellect of; to render insane.
   • 1663, John Tillotson, The Wisdom of being Religious:

     any man […] that is crazed and out of his wits

   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene iv]:

     Grief hath crazed my wits.

3. To be crazed, or to act or appear as one that is crazed; to rave; to become insane.
   • 1820, John Keats, “Robin Hood”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], OCLC 927360557, page 135:

     And if Robin should be cast / Sudden from his turfed grave, / And if Marian should have / Once again her forest days, / She would weep and he would craze: [...]

4. (transitive, intransitive, archaic) To break into pieces; to crush; to grind to powder. See crase.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554, lines 1100–1101:

     God looking forth will trouble all his Hoſt / And craze thir Chariot wheels:

5. (transitive, intransitive) To crack, as the glazing of porcelain or pottery.

• Rezac