Definition of "frantic"
frantic
adjective
comparative more frantic, superlative most frantic
(archaic) Insane, mentally unstable.
Quotations
If with myself I hold intelligence,Or have acquaintance with mine own desires;If that I do not dream, or be not frantic—As I do trust I am not—then, dear uncle,Never so much as in a thought unbornDid I offend your Highness.
c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene iii]
In a state of panic, worry, frenzy, or rush.
Quotations
Sir George bore the annoyances of the night as a very vain man does totally unaccustomed to mortification. He was frantic with passion; he longed to kill somebody, but he did not know who.
1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Assignation”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], page 247
noun
plural frantics
(archaic) A person who is insane or mentally unstable, madman.
Quotations
The Destroyer, being enraged at the Proposal of any Thing, that may rescue the Lives of our poor People from him, has taken a strange Possession of the People on this Occasion. They rave, they rail, they blaspheme; they talk not only like Ideots but also like Franticks, […]
1721, Cotton Mather, diary entry for 16 July, 1721 in Diary of Cotton Mather, 1709-1724, Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, Seventh Series, Volume VIII, Boston: 1912, p. 632