Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Experiencing delirium; having hallucinations: The state of perceiving things that are not present in reality, often due to mental illness, drug use, or extreme fatigue. It describes a person who is seeing, hearing, or sensing things that do not exist.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • The patient was hallucinating and kept talking to people who weren't there.
  • After three days without sleep, he started hallucinating and saw strange shapes on the walls.
  • The fever was so high that she became hallucinating.

Advanced Usage

• "to be hallucinating": Used as a predicate adjective following a linking verb like "be" or "start".
  • The doctors confirmed that he was hallucinating due to the medication's side effects.
• Describes a temporary state rather than a permanent trait.
  • She was not normally prone to such episodes, but the stress made her hallucinating.

Variants and Related Words

• Hallucinate (verb): To experience a hallucination.
  • Some substances can cause people to hallucinate.
• Hallucination (noun): The thing perceived or the experience itself.
  • The hallucination of giant spiders was terrifying.
• Hallucinatory (adjective): Relating to or resembling a hallucination.
  • The painting had a hallucinatory quality.

Synonyms

• Delirious: In a state of wild excitement or mental confusion, often involving hallucinations.
• Seeing things: (Informal) Experiencing visual hallucinations.

Related Phrases

• Hallucinating on: (Informal) Sometimes used to describe the cause of the hallucinations.
  • He was hallucinating on some powerful drugs.

Related Idioms

• Out of one's mind: Behaving irrationally, which can include hallucinating.
  • With that fever, he was completely out of his mind.

Adjective

1. experiencing delirium