delirium

1. (medicine) A temporary mental state with a sudden onset, usually reversible, including symptoms of confusion, inability to concentrate, disorientation, anxiety, and sometimes hallucinations. Causes can include dehydration, drug intoxication, and severe infection.Examples: "The popular delirium [of the French Revolution] at first caught his enthusiastic mind."; "Better to decay in absolute delirium, than to be the victim of the methodical unreason of ill-bestowed love."; "The evening wore away, and the long grass was silvery with dew; the consequence was what might have been expected,—next day, he was laid up with a violent cold; and the fever soon ran so high, that delirium came on; and before three days were past, his life hung upon a thread."countableuncountable