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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
barmy
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A small pastry hat manifested itself low on my brow, giving the missing barmy look to my regalia.
▪ However, his appearance in the witness box in support of Gary Blissett in the John Uzzell case was plain barmy.
▪ I was fourteen then, I'd seen her in National Velvet, and had been barmy about her ever since.
▪ She's barmy as a bedbug.
▪ She obviously thought he was barmy.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Barmy

Barmy \Barm"y\ (b[aum]rm"[y^]), a. Full of barm or froth; in a ferment. ``Barmy beer.''
--Dryden.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
barmy

1530s, "frothing, covered with barm;" see barm + -y (2). Figurative sense of "excited, flighty, bubbling with excitement" is from c.1600. Meaning "foolish" (1892) is probably an alteration of balmy.

Wiktionary
barmy

Etymology 1 a. (context rare English) containing barm, i.e. froth from fermented yeast Etymology 2

a. (context chiefly British English) odd, strange.

WordNet
barmy
  1. adj. 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]

  3. [also: barmiest, barmier]

Wikipedia
Barmy

Barmy (also, Barumy-Perdli, Pardaly, and Varumy) is a village in the Agsu Rayon of Azerbaijan.

Usage examples of "barmy".

Or Barmy Brian Beech, as we call him here, with no affection whatsoever!

I didn't know we had to key into sadness, and suddenly the idea of GoodNews seeing Barmy Brian is a little less attractive.

I would imagine that there is a lot of sadness hidden away somewhere in Barmy Brian, and not all of it would be easy to listen to.

We know what's right but we don't do it because it's too hard, it asks too much, and even trying to cure Mrs Cortenza or Barmy Brian is no guarantee of anything, so I somehow end each day in debit rather than credit.

And somehow in the process I would be forgiven my imperfections, permitted not to like Hope and Barmy Brian, made to understand that just because I wasn't good, it didn't mean I was bad.

There are unwritten rules for dealing with BB: you're allowed some fun – otherwise we would all be as barmy as he is – but not too much fun.

All my nearest and dearest know who Barmy Brian is, just as they know the names of every one of my heartsink patients, and I have told David that if either of my children attach an adjective, any adjective, to his first name in his presence, then he or she will not be eating en famille for a statutory minimum two years, including Christmas Day and birthdays.

Not just because Barmy Brian might live with us until the day I die and possibly well beyond – and that would define us all right, rather like a chalk outline defines a murder victim – but because if we go the other way, if I tell Brian that he cannot live with us, then things might be different for us afterwards.

She was a painter, so, you know, easier for her to live a beautiful life than it is for someone who has to deal with Mrs Cortenza and Barmy Brian and all the Holloway junkies.

He's been glitching the hospital circuits fit to drive the electrician and a high-priced consultant barmy.

Zanny thought, poor ancient, barmy, budgerigar-loving Miss Sheldon-Smythe.

Distastefully picking pieces of musty moss from his wet sleeve, he glared at Jostein, who had asked the barmy question, then snarled, "How in bloody hell would I know if witches fall in love?

She puzzled over that nonsense for only half a second before pronouncing, "Methinks all men must be barmy if they follow this logic.

The barmy ones, like you, well, the worms crawl up inta their heads and make 'em go mad.

Bloody hell, then, Im becoming as barmy as the English, he said disgustedly.