Madcap

//ˈmædkæp// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person who acts in a capricious, impulsive, or reckless manner.

    "Near-synonyms: mad lad, madlad"

  2. 2
    a reckless impetuous irresponsible person wordnet
  3. 3
    A very foolish or irresponsible person; a fool, an idiot. South-Asia

    "[R]un around as he commands. He is a madcap and we must learn to live with him. We are in his hands."

  4. 4
    An insane person; a lunatic. obsolete, rare

    "VVhy vvhat a mad-cap hath heauen lent vs here?"

Adjective
  1. 1
    Capricious, impulsive, or reckless; also, bizarre, crazy, zany; or foolish, idiotic.

    "a madcap activity    a madcap idea    a madcap plan"

Adjective
  1. 1
    characterized by undue haste and lack of thought or deliberation wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
daredevilhotheadedlunaticadventureradventuressadventurous

Example

More examples

"Come-on you mad-cap: Ile to the Ale-houſe vvith you preſently; […]"

Etymology

The noun is derived from mad + cap (“(informal) head”). The adjective is from an attributive use of the noun.

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