barmy
/ˈbɑːmi
/adjective (barmier, barmiest) British informal
1Mad; crazy: I thought I was going barmy at first...
- Asking the locals something apparently obvious with a Scottish accent just makes them think I'm barmy.
- A new report reveals we are forking out fortunes to bankroll bureaucrats with barmy "non-job" titles.
- A welcoming friend, he would always look at a manuscript or sit up for hours to listen politely to a barmy argument.
1.1Extremely foolish: this is a barmy decision...
- Do we really pay people to come to such barmy decisions?
- But the over-protective hothouse mentality is barmy.
- Those are the blokes so barmy, so psycho, they got turned down by their own national armies.
Derivatives
barmily
- The CRS, in even more barmily chic outfits, were getting pelted with rocks.
- These are Tory Trotskyites who are quite happy that things should get worse, because they barmily think they will then get better.
- I'm a total sucker for inspired silliness and non-stop, groan-worthy double entendres and barmily burgeoning plots.
barminess
- It is putting up 26 candidates and, apart from a moderately sensible policy querying the wisdom of allowing the current system of postal voting to continue, it's pure barminess all the way.
- What comes across most powerfully in this sumptuous work is the wonder, variety and sheer barminess of mankind's perennially fruitless quest for a truly ideal home.
- Sadly these are hard times, we must panic; otherwise David Blunkett's barminess will have been for naught!
Origin
Late 15th century (in the sense 'frothy'): from barm + -y1.