infuriate

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin infuriatus (“enraged”), past participle of infurio (“to enrage”), from Latin furia (“rage, fury, frenzy”), perhaps via Italian infuriato.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfjʊəɹieɪt/ (verb), IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfjʊəɹɪət/ (adjective)

• Audio (US)

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Verb

infuriate (third-person singular simple present infuriates, present participle infuriating, simple past and past participle infuriated)

1. To make furious or mad with anger; to fill with fury.

   Synonyms: enrage, madden

   • 1615, Edwin Sandys, “Psalm 2”, in Sacred Hymns, Consisting of fifti select psalms of David and others, paraphrastically turned into English verse‎^[1], London, page 2:

     What graceles fears, strange hates, may Nations so affright,
     Infuriate so; gainst God with mad attempts to fight?

   • 1796, Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Prospect of a Regicide Peace, London: J. Owen, Letter 2, p. 105,^[2]

     They tore the deputation of the Clergy to pieces by their infuriated declamations and invectives, before they lacerated their bodies by their massacres.

   • 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “11”, in Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:

     He bent over Oliver, and repeated the inquiry; but finding him really incapable of understanding the question; and knowing that his not replying would only infuriate the magistrate the more, and add to the severity of his sentence; he hazarded a guess.

   • 1937, George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier‎^[3], Penguin, published 1962, Part 2, Chapter 9, p. 131:

     I had […] no notion that the working class were human beings. […] I could agonise over their sufferings, but I still hated them and despised them when I came anywhere near them. I was still revolted by their accents and infuriated by their habitual rudeness.

   • 2022 August 3, Zaheena Rasheed, “Pelosi in Taiwan live news: Tsai slams ‘unnecessary’ China drills”, in Al Jazeera‎^[4], archived from the original on 03 August 2022:

     US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has left Taiwan after a one-day visit that has infuriated China.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:infuriate.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:enrage

Derived terms

• infuriated
• infuriating
• infuriation

Translations

to make furious or mad with anger

• Bulgarian: разгневявам (bg) (razgnevjavam), вбесявам (bg) (vbesjavam)
• Catalan: enfuriar (ca), enfurir (ca)
• Czech: rozzuřit
• French: rendre furieux, enrager (fr)
• German: wütend machen, zur Weißglut bringen
• Greek: εξοργίζω (el) (exorgízo)
• Maori: whakariri
• Polish: rozwścieczyć pf, rozwścieczać (pl) impf, rozwścieklić pf, rozwścieklać impf
• Portuguese: enfurecer (pt)
• Russian: злить (ru) (zlitʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: razbjèsniti (sh) pf, razbješnjívati (sh) impf, ražéstiti (sh) pf, ražešćívati impf
• Spanish: enfurecer (es)

Adjective

infuriate (comparative more infuriate, superlative most infuriate)

1. (now rare) Filled with, characterized by or expressing fury.

   Synonyms: enraged, furious, raging

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 482-490:

     These [materials] in thir dark Nativitie the Deep
     Shall yeild us, pregnant with infernal flame,
     Which into hallow Engins long and round
     Thick-rammd, at th’ other bore with touch of fire
     Dilated and infuriate shall send forth
     From far with thundring noise among our foes
     Such implements of mischief as shall dash
     To pieces, and orewhelm whatever stands
     Adverse,

   • 1728, James Thomson, “Spring”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC, page 26, lines 392-396:

     […] the steady tyrant man,
     Who with the thoughtless insolence of power
     Inflam’d, beyond the most infuriate rage
     Of the worst monster that e'er howl'd the waste,
     For sport alone takes up the cruel tract,

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 32, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     […] she housed and sheltered Mrs. Posky, who fled from her bungalow one night, pursued by her infuriate husband, wielding his second brandy bottle […]

   • 1929, Thomas Wolfe, chapter 20, in Look Homeward, Angel‎^[5], New York: Modern Library, page 280:

     With an infuriate scream the dead awakened.

   • 1951, William Styron, chapter 2, in Lie Down in Darkness‎^[6], Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, page 51:

     Until Peyton was born, bleak doubt assailed him. He looked at his wife’s body with suspicion and his own with infuriate guilt.

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

infuriate

1. inflection of infuriare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

infuriate f pl

1. feminine plural of infuriato