Definition of "madding"

The madding wheels of brazen chariots raged.

1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,

Check thy self, thou Air-monger; that with a madding thought, thus chasest fleeting shadows.

1670, Owen Feltham, Resolves: Divine, Moral, Political, 9th edition, page 26

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife.

1750 June 12 (date written; published 1751), T[homas] Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, in Designs by Mr. R[ichard] Bentley, for Six Poems by Mr. T. Gray, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […], published 1753