Meanings
plural madchildren
- A child who is insane.
Sitting on the bed surveying the damage, she begins to notice some order to the chaos. Perhaps this is not the act of a madman (or madchild) after all.
1994, Murray Krantz, Child Development: Risk and Opportunity, →ISBN, page 2972 more examples
The madhouse went down to the beach today - madmen, madwomen, madchildren - not to bathe, though the weather was perfect for bathing, but to welcome outcasts of every description from lands overseas.
2000, Gad Hollander, Walserian waltzes, →ISBN, page 25I felt an unusual detachment, an almost agnostic attitude toward the contest of giants that would turn New Orleans's Superdome into a vast asylum for madmen, madwomen and even madchildren.
2012, H. Brandt Ayers, The 2013 BCS National Championship, →ISBN
Origin
From mad + child, by analogy to madman and madwoman.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
madchild. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/madchild
“madchild.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/madchild. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “madchild,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/madchild.
Source: madchild on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.