madding
Acting in frenzy
Madding means frenzied, frantic, or turbulent—describing crowds or conditions marked by wild agitation.
The word survives almost exclusively in the phrase far from the madding crowd, meaning removed from the chaos of busy public life.
Thomas Hardy borrowed this phrase from Thomas Gray's poem for his 1874 novel title, cementing its place in English.
Outside this set phrase, madding sounds archaic.
Dense pressing crowd
- multitudeVery large number
- massesBulk or populace
- hordesVery large crowds
- bustleEnergetic noisy activity
swarm · teeming · press · surging · jostling · tumult · hubbub · commotion
throng
Dense pressing crowd
bustle · swarm · teeming · press · surging · jostling · tumult · hubbub · commotion · din
frantic
Wildly anxious or desperate
delirious · feverish · hysterical · berserk · rampage · fury · unhinged · rabid · agitated · overwrought
pastoral
Of countryside or clergy care
refuge · bucolic · rustic · tranquil · repose · stillness · Hardy · Elegy · countryside · escape