delirious

[ dih-leer-ee-uhs ]

adjective

1. Pathology. affected with or characteristic of delirium.
2. wild with excitement, enthusiasm, etc.:

   She was delirious with joy at the news.

   Synonyms: ecstatic, excited

delirious

/ dɪˈlɪrɪəs /

adjective

1. affected with delirium
2. wildly excited, esp with joy or enthusiasm

Derived Forms

• deˈliriousness, noun
• deˈliriously, adverb

Other Words From

• de·liri·ous·ly adverb
• de·liri·ous·ness noun
• nonde·liri·ous adjective
• nonde·liri·ous·ly adverb
• nonde·liri·ous·ness noun
• unde·liri·ous adjective
• unde·liri·ous·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of delirious¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; deliri(um) + -ous

Example Sentences

Now that her career has been suddenly mooted, her own mother has sunk into a depression and she’s all but delirious with grief, Kimberly is agitating for influence in the Brown administration.

From Time

Once the enslaved man’s neck was affected, he became delirious.

From Time

It didn’t take long for them to end up in the worst kind of scenario—lost, exhausted, and increasingly delirious.

From Outside Online

He was delirious, so she and another nurse sedated him and tied him down, which kept him alive.

From ProPublica

Patients can end up delirious and in pain, weakened by an unremitting torrent of bloody diarrhea.

From Nautilus

He became delirious, his heartbeat grew ragged, his blood teemed with the virus, and his lungs, liver and kidneys began to fail.

From The Daily Beast

Most of the Atari employees I saw projected an aura of almost delirious bliss.

From The Daily Beast

I was sort of delirious in the middle of that big thing happening.

From The Daily Beast

During those 12 days that we shot, I became really ill, so I was having that delirious, waking dream feeling anyway.

From The Daily Beast

He contracts Kharga Fever, which renders him delirious and causes him gradually to lose his eyesight.

From The Daily Beast

Harangues against the king and the aristocrats rendered them delirious with rage.

From Project Gutenberg

Rose Maylie had rapidly grown worse, and before midnight was delirious.

From Project Gutenberg

And that your next clear recollection is of lying here, where you were brought after being found delirious by the police?

From Project Gutenberg

And all this while, burning with fever, Ella Bedford lay delirious, and with a nurse at her bedside night and day.

From Project Gutenberg

Patients having this disease sometimes grow delirious and violent, and the priest should be careful how he handles them.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• ecstatic
• intoxicated
• mad
• rapturous
• thrilled
• transported