All 7 Uses of
hysteria
in
Arrowsmith
- To attend lectures on physical diagnosis, surgery, neurology, obstetrics, and gynecology in the morning, with hospital demonstrations in the afternoon; to supervise the making of media and the sterilization of glassware for Gottlieb; to instruct a new class in the use of the microscope and filter and autoclave; to read a page now and then of scientific German or French; to see Madeline constantly; to get through it all he drove himself to hysterical hurrying, and in the dizziest of it he began his first original research—his first lyric, his first ascent of unexplored mountains.†
Chpt 6hysterical = exceedingly funny (resulting in uncontrollable laughter); or exhibiting excessive, uncontrollable emotion
- They wondered at his hysterical entrance.†
Chpt 15
- He made hysterical and completely impractical plans for escape.†
Chpt 19
- It flared up, and instantly the huge and gloomy Tabernacle was hysterical with flames.†
Chpt 23
- The dining-room was gorgeous and very hideous, in stamped leather and hysterias of gold, with collections of servants watching one's use of asparagus forks.†
Chpt 29
- ....Well, welcome, gentlemen—" He flung out his arms in a dry hysteria.†
Chpt 33
- It came to him that Gottlieb, in his secluded innocence, had not realized what it meant to gain leave to experiment amid the hysteria of an epidemic.†
Chpt 34 *
Definition:
a state of excessive, uncontrollable emotion
In addition to being the adjective form of hysteria, the form hysterical can also indicate that something is exceedingly funny (leading to uncontrollable laughter)