rabid

comparative rabider · superlative rabidest

1. Affected with rabies.

   a rabid dog or fox

   Synonyms: mad

2. Of or pertaining to rabies, or hydrophobia.

   a rabid virus

3. broadlyFurious; raging; extremely violent.

   He met her struggles with rabid force, shaking her and growling.

   1990, Betina Krahn, Luck Be a Lady, Zebra Books, Kensington Publishing Corporation, page 417

   4 more examples

   It seems a very likely agreement that the Maestre’s activity against Cabra, at and after Ciudad Real, should be balanced by the service of Aguilar’s brutal underlings in the Rebellion at Fuente Ovejuna." In any event, there were “algunos caballeros (sic) cordobeses a devocién de . . . Rodrigo Girén,” who in 1473 had already proved themselves only too eager for the most rabid violence.

   1934, Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 1934-09: Volume 49, Issue 3, Modern Language Association of America, pages 710-711

   Brutal compulsion was the necessary accompaniment of the large-scale organization and the extensive order introduced by kingship. Herodotus’ history is full of revolting descriptions of the rabid violence of kings, such as the tale he told of Cambyses.

   1967, Lewis Mumford, The Myth of the Machine, Harcourt, Brace & World, →ISBN, page 184

   Their rage appeared to dissipate into bewilderment as they sensed for the first time exactly where they were. They peered about, and rather than drawing their rabid strength from the memorials surrounding them, they were confused. In their disfigured faces, Suzanna sensed the stunning realization that they too were now among the honored dead. It came to them as an epiphany.

   1984, Richard Setlowe, The Haunting of Suzanna Blackwell: A Novel, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, page 272

   This letter never reached its destination; the watchmaker, Mare Biron, who had offered to convey it to England, was arrested whilst attempting to pass the royal lines, and was immediately hanged. La Rochelle, however, still held out. “Their rabid fury,” says the cardinal, ‘‘gave them new strength, or rather the avenging wrath of God caused them to be supplied therewith in extraordinary measure by his evil spirit in order to prolong their woes; they were already almost at the end thereof and misery found upon them no more substance whereon it could feed and support itself; they were skeletons, empty shadows, breathing corpses rather than living men.”

   1889, Guizot's History of France, archived from the original on 25 Jun 2020, pages 95-96

   Synonyms: fierce, infuriate, raging, ferocious, fierce, furious, rampant, grim

4. figurativelyVery extreme, unreasonable, or fanatical in opinion; excessively zealous.

   a rabid socialist

   5 more examples

   rabid Green Bay Packers fans

   He was bubbling over with loyalty, and became rabid at the mere mention of annexation. His head was white with the bleaching. of threescore and ten years. Great experience and extensive practical knowledge, with frankness and volubility in conversation, made him a most agreeable companion, and we much regretted parting with him and his amiable daughter at Kingston.

   1850, Benson J. Lossing, The Pictorial Fieldbook of the Revolution, Harper and Brothers Publisher, page 210

   Cross-examine the pessimists of your acquaintance, and you will find them one day rabid pessimists. Once more, then, true wisdom, while never ignoring the necessity of moderate hope, will never allow immoderate expectation to be the ascendant star whereby life's course is steered.

   1879, George Somers Bellamy, Essays from Shakspere, The Edinburgh Publishing Company, pages 96-97

   " I doubt him ; he is more rabid than ever. 'T was but yesterday he sent forth a proclamation forbidding the British soldiers to walk the streets, — mark ye, Mynheer Beekman, his Majesty's own troops ; he would keep them cooped up."

   1890, Edwin Lassetter Bynner, The Begum's Daughter, Little, Brown, and Company, page 214

   When in 1780 this terrible Prode-zeit was over, and Mirabeau obtained his final release, he emerged not, as we should expect from the violence of his nature, a rabid hater of mankind, a furious revolutionist, a determined avenger of his wrongs, buya man sane in intellect, passionate but with the passion of humanity, humiliated but forgiving, scorned but patient, strong in the strength of his own self-knowledge, determined to win for himself a place in the councils of the nation.

   1896, The University Extension Journal, Volume 1, Number 4, Archibald Constable & Company, page 96

   Synonyms: ardent, fanatical, maximum, utmost, extreme, ferocious, exquisite, intense

plural rabids

1. A human or animal infected with rabies.
2. Someone who is fanatical in opinion.