English
bedlam
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈbɛdləm/
Noun

bedlam (plural bedlams)

  1. A place or situation of chaotic uproar, and where confusion prevails.
  2. (obsolete) An insane person; a lunatic; a madman.
    • ca. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act III, sc. 7:
      Let's follow the old Earl, and get the Bedlam
      To lead him where he would; his roguish madness
      Allows itself to anything.
    • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress, Christian overtakes Faithful:
      The pilgrims were clothed with such kind of raiment as was diverse from the raiment of any that traded in that fair. The people, therefore, of the fair, made a great gazing upon them: some said they were fools, some they were bedlams, and some they are outlandish men.
  3. (obsolete) A lunatic asylum; a madhouse.
    • 1824, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto XIV:lxxxiv:
      Shut up the world at large, let Bedlam out;
      And you will be perhaps surprised to find
      All things pursue exactly the same route,
      As now with those of soi-disant sound mind.
    • 1843, Charles Dickens, "A Christmas Carol":
      “There’s another fellow,” muttered Scrooge; who overheard him: “my clerk, with fifteen shillings a week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas. I’ll retire to Bedlam.”
    • ca. 1909, Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, Letter II:
      ... only the holy can stand the joys of that bedlam.
Translations

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