• IPA: /kɹeɪz/

craze (plural crazes)

1. (archaic) craziness; insanity.
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.

• French: engouement
• German: Fimmel
• Portuguese: febre
• Russian: ма́ния

craze (crazes, present participle crazing; 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: Printed by J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398 ↗, lines 571–572, [https://archive.org/stream/paradiseregaindp00milt_0#page/{}/mode/1up page 39]:

     till length of years / And ſedentary numneſs craze my limbs

2. To derange the intellect of; to render insane.

   • 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: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by 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: Printed [by 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. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], 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.

• Italian: impazzire