barmy adj

1 marked by spirited enjoyment [syn: zestful, yeasty, zesty]

2 informal or slang terms for mentally irregular; "it used to drive my husband balmy" [syn: balmy, bats, batty, bonkers, buggy, cracked, crackers, daft, dotty, fruity, haywire, kooky, kookie, loco, loony, loopy, nuts, nutty, round the bend, around the bend, wacky, whacky] [also: barmiest, barmier]

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɑː(r)mi

Homophones

• balmy

Adjective

en-adj-er-y barm

1. In the context of "rare": containing barm, i.e. froth from fermented yeast
2. In the context of "mainly|Commonwealth English": dotty, goofy, wacko.

   2004: The movie is sweet enough in its barmy way... -- Roger Ebert

Derived terms

• barmily
• barminess

Related terms

• in US English, balmy is usual for sense (2); elsewhere this is occasionally found but some authorities consider it erroneous.

balmy, bananas, bats, batty, beany, bonkers, buggy, bughouse, bugs, crackers, cuckoo, daffy, diastatic, dippy, dotty, enzymic, fermenting, flaky, flipped, foam-flecked, foamy, freaked-out, frothy, fruitcakey, fruity, gaga, goofy, haywire, heady, just plain nuts, kooky, lathery, leavening, loony, loopy, nuts, nutty, off the hinges, off the track, off the wall, potty, raising, round the bend, screwball, screwballs, screwy, slaphappy, soapsuddy, soapsudsy, soapy, spumose, spumous, spumy, suddy, sudsy, wacky, working, yeasty