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View synonyms for bedlam

bedlam

[ bed-luhm ]

noun

  1. a scene or state of wild uproar and confusion.

    Synonyms: pandemonium, commotion, turmoil, clamor, chaos, tumult, disorder

  2. Archaic. an insane asylum or madhouse.


bedlam

/ ˈbɛdləm /

noun

  1. a noisy confused place or situation; state of uproar

    his speech caused bedlam

  2. archaic.
    a lunatic asylum; madhouse


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Word History and Origins

Origin of bedlam1

A popular name for the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem in London, which served as a lunatic asylum from circa 1400; compare Middle English Bedleem, Bethleem, Old English Betleem Bethlehem

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Word History and Origins

Origin of bedlam1

C13 bedlem , bethlem , after the Hospital of St Mary of Bethlehem in London

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Example Sentences

My wife agreed to have a look, and we strolled onto the pier to find it in total shrimping bedlam.

Casa Bruja is a diamond in the rough, a refuge among all this bedlam.

Arriving at the Melody Ballroom, the atmosphere was a frenzy of joy, jubilation and holy bedlam.

It was festive and crazed but never mere bedlam; Fallon is too disciplined and too conservative to allow that.

Ironically, Fayyad ended up bearing the brunt of the blame for the continuing bedlam and economic distress on the West Bank.

The slippery slope argument isn't helpful when past history has demonstrated Senate rules can be changed without inducing bedlam.

He was remitted to Bedlam, and became an awful warning that God will not always be insulted with impunity.

Among other disguises, many affected madness, and were distinguished by the name of Bedlam Beggars.

There followed a wild yell, a pandemonium as though Bedlam had been turned loose, and then a heavy fall and sudden quiet.

For a second she was uncertain from whence the bedlam came; then she leaped from the bed and ran to the closed door.

The mad maid of the poets is a vagrant too, when she is free, and not singing within Bedlam early in the morning, “in the spring.”

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