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“bedlam”
1. A place or situation of noisy uproar and confusion: There was so much bedlam in kindergarten, that the teacher couldn’t be heard when she tried to talk to them!
2. An insane asylum: A bedlam used to be a place of confinement and housing of lunatics, idiots, or mad people; but now it is called an institution for taking care of the mentally ill.
3. Origin: In 1247, the priory, religious house, of St. Mary of Bethlehem was founded in London.
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2. An insane asylum: A bedlam used to be a place of confinement and housing of lunatics, idiots, or mad people; but now it is called an institution for taking care of the mentally ill.
3. Origin: In 1247, the priory, religious house, of St. Mary of Bethlehem was founded in London.
In the early fifteenth century, it came to be used as a hospital for lunatics, or psychopaths.
Known as "Bethlehem", the name of the asylum was contracted in popular usage to "Bethlem, Bedlem, or Bedlam" which came to be applied to any lunatic asylum, and consequently, bedlam is used to signify any scene of uproar or confusion that is suggestive of a madhouse.
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This entry is located in the following unit:
English Words in Action, Group B
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