Definition of "barmy"

[T]each thy Incubus to Poëtize, / And throvve abroad thy ſpurious Snotteries, / Vpon that puft-vp Lumpe of Barmy froth, […]

1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, Act V, scene iii, signature L4, recto

Their jovial Nights, in frollicks and in play / They paſs, to drive the tedious Hours avvay. / And their cold Stomachs vvith crovvn'd Goblets cheer, / Of vvindy Cider, and of barmy Beer.

1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], page 113, lines 582–585

[H]e stood for a while on the quivering footbridge and watched the rush of dead wood and torn branches and wisps of straw all hurrying madly past him, to plunge into the heaped spume, the barmy froth that had gathered against a fallen tree.

1907, Arthur Machen [pseudonym; Arthur Llewellyn Jones], chapter I, in The Hill of Dreams, London: E. Grant Richards, page 2

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 […]

1997, Margriet S. Westerterp-Plantenga, Anne Algers, Chris K. Leach, editors, Food in Europe: Food Production, Processing and Consumption (Food in Europe; 1), Heerlen, Limburg, Netherlands: Open Universiteit Nederland, page 105

Just now I've taen the fit o' rhyme, / My barmie noddle's working prime, […]

1786, Robert Burns, “To J. S****”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, volume I, Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] John Wilson; reprinted Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] James M‘Kie, 1867, page 70

[T]he 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, […]

1872, Mrs. Edward Millet [i.e., Janet Millett], chapter XIV, in An Australian Parsonage; or, The Settler and the Savage in Western Australia, London: Edward Stanford, […], page 330

"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.

1897, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 9, in Liza of Lambeth, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published , page 142

I thanked John [Bishop], 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.

2013 September 13, Russell Brand, “Russell Brand and the GQ awards: ‘It’s amazing how absurd it seems’”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, archived from the original on 2023-04-07