hectic

comparative more hectic · superlative most hectic · alternative obsolete hectick · alternative archaic hectical

1. figurativelyVery busy with activity and confusion.

   The city center is so hectic at 8 in the morning that I go to work an hour beforehand to avoid the crowds

   1 more example

   Phoenix:It must have been too hectic that night to clean up.

   2007 March 16, Capcom Production Studio 4, quoting Phoenix, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All, Europe: Capcom, →OCLC, Nintendo DS, scene: Part 3: Investigation, Cafeteria, level/area: Turnabout Big Top

   Synonyms: feverish

2. obsoleteDenoting a type of fever accompanying consumption and similar wasting diseases, characterised by flushed cheeks and dry skin.

   hectic fever

3. obsoletePertaining to or symptomatic of such a fever.

   Ann had a hectic cough, and many unfavourable prognostics […].

   1788, Mary Wollstonecraft, chapter VI, in Mary: A Fiction

   1 more example

   She never complained, but sleep and appetite fled from her, a slow fever preyed on her veins, her colour was hectic, and she often wept in secret […].

   1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in The Last Man. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC

plural hectics · alternative obsolete hectick · alternative archaic hectical

1. obsoleteA hectic fever.

   […] Do it England, / For like the Hecticke in my blood he rages, / And thou muſt cure me: […]

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 273

2. obsoleteA flush like one produced by such a fever.

   The poor Franciscan made no reply: a hectic of a moment pass’d across his cheek, but could not tarry […]

   1768, Mr. Yorick [pseudonym; Laurence Sterne], A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy, volume I, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt, […], →OCLC, page 17

   2 more examples

   For still he lay, and on his thin worn cheek / A purple hectic played like dying day / On the snow-tops of distant hills […]

   1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto II, stanza 147

   an angry hectic in each cheek, a fierce flirt of her fan, and two or three short sniffs that betokened mischief

   1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard