dement
Definition
- Verb (transitive):
- To drive mad or to cause insanity: "dement" means to make someone insane or to cause a loss of mental faculties.
- To unhinge or derange: It can also mean to disturb someone’s mental stability, often used in a figurative sense.
Usage Examples
- (The noise and stress drove him mad.)
- (The isolation caused her to lose her sanity.)
- (The tragedy disturbed the community's mental state.)
Advanced Usage
"to become demented": to lose one's mental faculties or sanity.
- After the accident, he slowly became demented. (He gradually lost his mental abilities.)
"dementing illness": a disease that causes progressive loss of mental function.
- Alzheimer's is a dementing illness that affects memory and cognition. (A disease that causes mental decline.)
Variants and Related Words
Demented (adj): driven mad; insane; mentally disturbed.
- The demented patient was placed under constant supervision. (The insane patient was watched closely.)
Dementia (n): a chronic or persistent disorder of the mental processes caused by brain disease or injury.
- Dementia often affects elderly individuals, causing memory loss. (A mental disorder causing cognitive decline.)
Dementedly (adv): in a manner that shows madness or insanity.
- He laughed dementedly after the joke. (He laughed in a crazy way.)
Synonyms
- Madden: to make someone extremely angry or insane.
- Derange: to disturb the normal function or order of something, especially the mind.
- Unhinge: to make someone mentally unstable.
Phrasal Verbs
- Dement out (rare): to cause someone to lose their mind completely.
- The horror of the war demented him out of all reason. (The horror drove him completely insane.)
Related Idioms
Drive someone demented: to make someone extremely angry or crazy.
- The constant barking of the dog drove me demented. (Made me very annoyed or mentally disturbed.)
Go demented: to become insane or act in a crazy manner.
- He went demented after losing his job and his home. (He lost his mental stability.)