English

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Etymology

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From delirium +‎ -ous; see also Latin delirus (silly, doting, crazy).

Pronunciation

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  • (UK) IPA(key): /dɪˈlɪɹ.i.əs/, /dɪˈlɪə̯.ɹi.əs/ (Can we verify(+) this pronunciation?) (particularly: The syllable break of the first one can't possibly be right, otherwise non-rhotic dialects wouldn't pronounce the "r")
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪəɹiəs

Adjective

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delirious (comparative more delirious, superlative most delirious)

  1. (medicine) Being in the state of delirium.
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, [], →OCLC, Canto XVI, page 26:
      ⁠Or has the shock, so harshly given,
      […] made me that delirious man
      ⁠Whose fancy fuses old and new,
      ⁠And flashes into false and true,
      And mingles all without a plan?
    • 1872, Simon Mohler Landis, The Social War, Chapter III: Deacon Stew raves at Lucinda's Love for Victor:
      [] the angelic form of a creature whose very existence was a gigantic balm of Gilead to the lacerated body of our hero, and, in a half delirious state of mind, he felt like leaping mountains to raise prostrate female forms, and to become blessed with hymeneal joys of the most glorious character; but, his imagination soon forsook him, and a raging fever, accompanied by the most violent deadly delirium, ensued, which lasted a fortnight.
  2. Having uncontrolled excitement; ecstatic.

Derived terms

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Translations

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