madhousen.

1649 Mercurius Aulicus 21–28 Aug. 9 Tis a mad World my Masters, and a mad House there was like to have been at Westminster, for all the Members were planet-struck upon the sight of a Book lately published by Mr Prynne.

1679 J. Carkesse Lucida Intervalla 3 (title) To the Duke, General of the Artillery Ground, Overlookt by Finnes-burrough Mad-House, Where I was Confin'd.

1687 N. Luttrell Diary 17 June in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) I. 406 He was severely reprimanded, and told he was fitter for a mad house.

1695 Reg. Parish of St. James, Clerkenwell (Harleian Soc.) (1893) V. 171 Burials... Ann Pallmer, widow, from Dr. Newton's Mad house.

1722 D. Defoe Moll Flanders 108 He told me once he thought I was Mad, and if I did not alter my Conduct, he would put me under Cure; that is to say, into a Mad-House.

1774 Act 14 Geo. III c. 49 (title) An Act for regulating Madhouses.

1828 T. Carlyle Burns in Edinb. Rev. Dec. 305 Tasso pines in the cell of a madhouse.

1854 G. A. Sala in Househ. Words 23 Dec. 440/1 The mad-house keeper and all unbelievers in steam-engines were to be conveyed incontinently to the gallies.

1916 G. B. Shaw Androcles & Lion Pref. p. lxiii One person in every five dies in a workhouse, a public hospital, or a madhouse.

1929 F. N. Hart Hide in Dark v. 182 It seems fairly essential to get at what facts are available..if some of us aren't to wind up in a mad~house.

1955 G. Willans Fasten your Lapstraps! i. 23 There is a dull sound of barley sugar being crunched and gum chewed—the whole place..is like a Victorian mad~house.

1988 F. Weldon Leader of Band v. 31 The frequent approach of the madhouse staff, syringes and strait-jackets at the ready, made it difficult to maintain the illusion.

1905 National Police Gaz. (U.S.) 23 Dec. 7 The old practice ships were what sailors call ‘madhouses’. It was drill all day and watch and watch all night.

1928 J. Callahan Man's Grim Justice xiii. 155 I had been in the New England ‘madhouse’ [sc. prison] now about eleven months.

1941 M. Goodrich Delilah iii. xxii. 369 He thought of Delilah as a ‘madhouse’, a term applied to a disorganized ship in which a miserable crew is overworked.

1988 D. Poyer Med vi. 99 Let's get off this madhouse.

1917 G. B. Shaw Heartbreak House iii. 99 Is this England, or is it a madhouse?

1929 H. Crane Let. 7 Feb. (1965) 335 This City [sc. Paris], as you know, is the most interesting madhouse in the world.

1946 E. O'Neill Iceman Cometh iii. 184 God, I'm glad I'm leaving this madhouse!

1956 R. Braddon Nancy Wake xiv. 155 The Moulins railway junction was a mad-house of torn and tangled lines and shattered rolling stock.

1973 Radio Times 26 Apr. 48/1 They [sc. chefs] roast and stew and bake in a kind of madhouse of shouted commands, cancelled orders and frayed tempers.

1994 Denver Post 2 Jan. f2/1 The place was a madhouse of flacks, journalists slurping up a fabulous buffet and photographers shooting roll after roll of film.

1936 R. Croft-Cooke Darts vi. 39 Madhouse.—The double 1. ‘In the Madhouse!’ You are advised, when you have split the double 2, and to that unpleasant region you repair.

?1942 L. H. Dawson Hoyle's Games Modernized (new ed.) v. 465 Unless he is in the unfortunate position of having first to score the single 1, when he is ‘in the Madhouse,’ or, more simply, ‘Madhouse!’.

1979 L. Rees & D. Lanning On Darts vii. 56 Madhouse, double one because it is the lowest double on the board and can drive lesser players mad trying to hit it.

2008 J. Irwin Murder on Darts Board iii. 55 Anyone who has played competitive darts will have spent time cursing the madhouse.