barmy
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /ˈbɑː.mi/, /ˈbɑːɹ.mi/
Adjective

barmy (comparative barmier, superlative barmiest)

  1. (rare) Containing barm, i.e. froth from fermented yeast.
    • Their jovial Nights, in frollicks and in play
      They pass, to drive the tedious Hours away:
      And their cold Stomachs with crown'd Goblets cheer,
      Of windy Cider, and of barmy Beer.
    • 1997, Margriet S. Westerterp-Plantenga, Food in Europe: Food] production, processing and consumption
      Here the yeast is added to convert the sugars to alcohol, also producing carbon dioxide. After about 24 hours the fermentation has created a thick head of barmy foam […]
Adjective

barmy (comparative barmier, superlative barmiest)

  1. (chiefly, British) Odd, strange, or crazy.
    Synonyms: dotty, goofy, wacko
    • 1872, Janet Millett, An Australian Parsonage
      ...when I remonstrated with him on his having quitted it he assigned as a reason for doing so that the exercise yard of the "barmy fellows," as he called the madmen, (meaning, I suppose, that their brains were in an unnatural state of working,) was but a stone's throw from himself and his rational companions...
    • 1897, William Somerset Maugham, Liza of Lambeth
      'Bli'me if I know wot yer all talkin' abaht. You're all barmy on the crumpet,' said Liza indignantly, and, turning her back on them, made for home.
    • 2013, Russell Brand, Russell Brand and the GQ awards: 'It's amazing how absurd it seems' (in The Guardian, 13 September 2013)
      I thanked John, said the "oracle award" sounds like a made-up prize you'd give a fat kid on sports day – I should know, I used to get them – then that it's barmy that Hugo Boss can trade under the same name they flogged uniforms to the Nazis under and the ludicrous necessity for an event such as this one to banish such a lurid piece of information from our collective consciousness.



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