barmier

Adjective (1)

barmy (comparative barmier, superlative barmiest)

1. (also, archaic, figuratively) Containing, covered with, or pertaining to barm (“foam rising upon beer or other malt liquors when fermenting, used as leaven in brewing and making bread”).
   • [T]each thy Incubus to Poëtize, / And throvve abroad thy ſpurious Snotteries, / Vpon that puft-vp Lumpe of Barmy froth, […]1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act V, scene iii, signature L4, recto
2. (archaic, figuratively) Bubbling with activity or excitement; active, excited.
   • Just now I've taen the fit o' rhyme, / My barmie noddle's working prime, […]1786, Robert Burns, “To J. S****”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, volume I, Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] John Wilson, →OCLC; reprinted Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] James M‘Kie, 1867, →OCLC...

Adjective (2)

barmy (comparative barmier, superlative barmiest)

1. (Ireland, UK, archaic, informal) Crazy, mad; also, eccentric, odd, strange.
   • [T]he exercise yard of the "barmy fellows," as he called the madmen, (meaning, I suppose, that their brains were in an unnatural state of working,) was but a stone's throw from himself and his rational companions, […]1872, Mrs. Edward Millet [i.e., Janet Millett], chapter XIV, in An Australian Parsonage; or, The Settler and the Savage in Western Australia, London: Edward Stanford, […], →OCLC, page 330

   Synonyms:

   balmy, dotty, goofy, wacko, aberrant, abnormal, anomalous, bizarre, crackpot, cranky

   Antonyms:

   average, medial, basic, bog-standard, common, commonplace, common-and-garden, common-or-garden, congruent, consistent

2. (Ireland, UK, archaic, informal) Very foolish.

   Synonyms:

   balmy, asinine, bedaft, loony, daft, derpy, dim-headed, dim-witted, dopey, dull-headed

   Antonyms:

   astute, clairvoyant, deep, frood, grounded, judicious, oracular, perspicacious, politic, profound

See all 5 meanings of barmy