Berserk

//ˈbɜːsɜːk// adj, noun, verb, slang

adj, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Synonym of berserker (“a Norse warrior who fought in a frenzy”). historical

    "She had heard of his profligacy, his bursts of fierce Berserk-madness; and yet now these very faults, instead of repelling, seemed to attract her, and intensify her longing to save him."

  2. 2
    one of the ancient Norse warriors legendary for working themselves into a frenzy before a battle and fighting with reckless savagery and insane fury wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To be or become berserk. intransitive

    "When great champions went berserking and were angry, they lost their human nature and went mad like dogs."

  2. 2
    To make berserk. transitive

    "He neither knows himself nor his outriders; he berserks a fearful dimension and dismounts, miraculously, in bed!"

Adjective
  1. 1
    Furiously, injuriously, or maniacally violent or out of control.

    "After seeing his sister stabbed to death, he went berserk and attacked the killer like a wild animal."

  2. 2
    Bizarre; weird. broadly

    "[T]he writer conjured up a dystopian fantasy more berserk than anything you might find yourself listening to in the small hours at the Stone Circle."

  3. 3
    Wildly joyous; ecstatic. broadly, dialectal, rare, slang

    "In amongst the strife, Scott McTominay, whose stoppage-time winner against Israel sent Hampden berserk, and Ryan Christie offered signs of an attacking pulse."

Adjective
  1. 1
    wildly frenzied and out of control wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
berserkerabandonedagitatedamokamokamuck

Example

More examples

"A critically wounded elephant went berserk and attacked every living thing in his path."

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from Old Norse berserkr (“Norse warrior who fights in a frenzy”), probably from bjǫrn (“bear”) + serkr (“coat; shirt”), referring to the bearskins which the warriors wore. Bjǫrn is possibly ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“brown”); and serkr from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“to bind, tie together; thread”). Alternatively, it has been suggested that the first element of the word is from berr (“bare, naked”), referring to warriors who went into battle without armour, but this is now thought unlikely. Doublet of berserker. The adjective is derived from the noun. The verb might partly be a back-formation from berserker, analyzed as containing the suffix -er. Cognates * Icelandic berserkur * Norwegian Bokmål berserk * Norwegian Nynorsk berserk * Swedish bärsärk

Related phrases

berserk llama syndromego berserk

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.