1
: emotionally out of control
2
: marked by fast and nervous, disordered, or anxiety-driven activity
made a frantic search for the lost child
frantic cries for help
3
archaic
: mentally unsound
Synonyms
Examples of frantic in a Sentence
The girl was frantic with fear.
They made a frantic search for the missing child.
They were making frantic preparations for the party.
a frantic attempt to finish on schedule
Recent Examples on the Web
People down’: 911 calls reveal frantic scene during Doral bar shooting
Six bar patrons were injured, and a Doral officer also was hurt.
—
Devoun Cetoute, Miami Herald, 19 Apr. 2024
Some of the crews called up for duty reported that there were delays of up to an hour during the frantic effort to deploy them to the fire lines as workers struggled to gather equipment for their vehicles.
—Mike Baker, New York Times, 17 Apr. 2024
Wandering in the cellar of the unfamiliar house, unable for some frantic minutes to find the stairway leading up, the wife had begun to have difficulty breathing.
—Joyce Carol Oates, The New Yorker, 15 Apr. 2024
The frantic horse ran the 26 acres of pasture for a week, crying and searching for her friend, barely eating and refusing to enter the barn.
—Alexandra Rockey Fleming, Peoplemag, 9 Apr. 2024
Through increasingly frantic sequences—videos of hydraulic presses smashing Technicolor plastic toys, audio files of shuffling paper and falling shelves—Ben led Alicia to a storage room, home to a cabinet full of scrapbooks.
—Camille Butera, WIRED, 1 Apr. 2024
The extras were being radioed into place and Watanabe and Elgort were each taking a moment to themselves on the sidelines, preparing for their frantic meeting on camera.
—Patrick Brzeski, The Hollywood Reporter, 30 Mar. 2024
But seconds later, a frantic officer radioed that the bridge had collapsed.
—NBC News, 27 Mar. 2024
Trading in Trump Media and Technology Group, the company behind the Truth Social app, was so frantic that it was briefly halted at one point.
—Rafael Nam, NPR, 26 Mar. 2024
Devoun Cetoute, Miami Herald, 19 Apr. 2024
Some of the crews called up for duty reported that there were delays of up to an hour during the frantic effort to deploy them to the fire lines as workers struggled to gather equipment for their vehicles.
—Mike Baker, New York Times, 17 Apr. 2024
Wandering in the cellar of the unfamiliar house, unable for some frantic minutes to find the stairway leading up, the wife had begun to have difficulty breathing.
—Joyce Carol Oates, The New Yorker, 15 Apr. 2024
The frantic horse ran the 26 acres of pasture for a week, crying and searching for her friend, barely eating and refusing to enter the barn.
—Alexandra Rockey Fleming, Peoplemag, 9 Apr. 2024
Through increasingly frantic sequences—videos of hydraulic presses smashing Technicolor plastic toys, audio files of shuffling paper and falling shelves—Ben led Alicia to a storage room, home to a cabinet full of scrapbooks.
—Camille Butera, WIRED, 1 Apr. 2024
The extras were being radioed into place and Watanabe and Elgort were each taking a moment to themselves on the sidelines, preparing for their frantic meeting on camera.
—Patrick Brzeski, The Hollywood Reporter, 30 Mar. 2024
But seconds later, a frantic officer radioed that the bridge had collapsed.
—NBC News, 27 Mar. 2024
Trading in Trump Media and Technology Group, the company behind the Truth Social app, was so frantic that it was briefly halted at one point.
—Rafael Nam, NPR, 26 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'frantic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near frantic
Cite this Entry
“Frantic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frantic. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
frantic
adjective
fran·tic
ˈfrant-ik 
1
: wildly excited
frantic cries for help
was frantic with fear
2
: marked by wild and hurried activity
a frantic search for the missing child
franticly
adverb
-i-klē
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