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''bedlam'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260305143651-00-⌔

bedlam - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

bedlam (countable and uncountable, plural bedlams)

  • A place or situation of chaotic uproar, and where confusion prevails.
    • ✤ Synonyms: madhouse, pandemonium
    • ✤ Some of the wards were veritable “bedlams,” and discharged patients have told of abuses practiced in them of which the mere recital causes a shudder.1
    • ✤ The outside of the Hyatt was bedlam. There was a group of more than a hundred injured people on the circular drive in front of the hotel.2
    • ✤ A car was a rarity, and the sight of one in the distance was sometimes enough to cause bedlam during a class.3
    • ✤ “We had an extraordinary February half term - I think we had 22,000 visitors in the seven days. Which actually is a bit like bedlam at times.”4
  • (obsolete) An insane person; a lunatic; a madman.
    • ✤ Lets follow the old Earle, and get the bedlom
      To lead him where he would, his rogiſh madnes
      Allows it ſelfe to any thing.      5
    • ✤ Firſt, The Pilgrims were cloathed with ſuch kind of Raiment, as was diverſe from the Raiment of any that Traded in that fair. The people therefore of the fair made a great gazing upon them: Some ſaid they were Fools, ſome they were Bedlams, and ſome they are Outlandiſh-men.6
  • (obsolete) A lunatic asylum; a madhouse.
    • ✤ It was a ſhrewd ſaying of the old Monk, That two kind of Priſons would ſerve for all offenders in the World, an Inquiſition and a * Bedlam: If any man ſhould deny the Being of a God and the Immortality of the Soul, ſuch a one ſhould be put into the firſt of these, the Inquiſition, as being a deſperate Heretick; but if any man ſhould profeſs to believe theſe things, and yet allow himſelf in any known wickedneſs, ſuch a one ſhould be put into Bedlam; becauſe there cannot be a greater folly and madneſs, than for a man in matters of greateſt moment and concernment to act againſt his beſt Reaſon and Underſtanding, and by his Life to contradict his Belief.*7
    • ✤ Shut up the world at large, let Bedlam out;
      And you will be perhaps surprised to find
      All things pursue exactly the same route,
      As now with those of soi-disant sound mind.      8
    • ✤ “There ’s another fellow,” muttered Scrooge; who overheard him: “my clerk, with fifteen shillings a-week, and a wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas. I ’ll retire to Bedlam.”9
    • ✤ Make a note of it: in man’s heaven there are no exercises for the intellect, nothing for it to live upon. It would rot there in a year—rot and stink. Rot and stink—and at that stage become holy. A blessed thing: only the holy can stand the joys of that bedlam.10

Etymology

From Bedlam, alternative name of the English lunatic asylum, Bethlem Royal Hospital (royal hospital from 1375, mental hospital from 1403) (earlier St Mary of Bethlehem outside Bishopsgate, hospice in existence from 1329, priory established 1247), since used to mean “a place or situation of madness and chaos”. Bedlam as name of hospital attested 1450.

Phonologically, corruption of Bethlem, itself a corruption of Bethlehem (the Biblical town), from Ancient Greek Βηθλεέμ (Bēthleém) from Biblical Hebrew בֵּית לֶחֶם (bêṯ leḥem, literally “house of bread”).

However, also compare Spanish belén (“confusion, disorder; a place characteristic of such”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈbɛdləm/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1888, H.H. Giles, The Insane, and the Wisconsin System for their Care, page 18: ↩

  2. 2002, Mark L. Friedman, Everyday Crisis Management, page 134: ↩

  3. 2005, Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go, page 31: ↩

  4. 2020 June 3, Sam Mullins OBE discusses with Stefanie Foster, “LTM: a new chapter begins at 40”, in Rail, page 54: ↩

  5. c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], * […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […]* (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vii]: ↩

  6. 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, page 123: ↩

  7. 1664, John Tillotson, “Job xxviij. 28.”, in Sermons Preach’d upon Several Occasions, London: […] A[nne] M[axwell] for Sa[muel] Gellibrand, […], published 1671, →OCLC, page 76: ↩

  8. 1823 December 17, [Lord Byron], Don Juan. Cantos XII.—XIII.—and XIV., London: […] [C. H. Reynell] for John Hunt, […], →OCLC, canto XIV, stanza LXXXIV, page 157: ↩

  9. 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave I. Marley’s Ghost.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 11: ↩

  10. c. 1909, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “Letter II”, in Bernard DeVoto, editor, Letters from the Earth, New York, N.Y.; Evanston, Ill.: Harper & Row, published 1962, →LCCN, page 13: ↩

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