febrile

comparative more febrile · superlative most febrile

1. Feverish, or having a high temperature.

   Aurora's orange sun (Baley scarcely noted the orange tinge now) was mildly warm on his back, lacking the febrile heat that Earth's sun had in summer (but, then, what was the climate and season on this portion of Aurora right now?).

   1983, Isaac Asimov, chapter 22, in The Robots of Dawn, →ISBN, page 116

   Synonyms: flushed, hot

2. medicineInvolving fever as a symptom or cause.
3. figurativelyFull of nervous energy.

   Harry Potter has become such a febrile battleground that the pattern has already become well worn.

   2025 June 11, Stuart Heritage, “‘Please walk away from Harry Potter’: why the stars of HBO’s new TV show are in for decades of social media hell”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   2 more examples

   An already febrile atmosphere within the ground before the start had been stoked still further when France's players formed an arrow formation to face down the haka, and then advanced slowly over halfway as the capacity crowd roared.

   2011 October 23, Tom Fordyce, “2011 Rugby World Cup final: New Zealand 8-7 France”, in BBC Sport

   Out in the ground, meanwhile, it was particularly disappointing to hear former England captain Andrew Strauss put the febrile atmosphere down to “people who don’t normally come to Lord’s”.

   2023 July 4, Marina Hyde, “Who’s for political Bazball with Rishi? Voters? Tories? Anyone?”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms: energetic, excited