mad scientist

Noun

mad scientist (plural mad scientists)

1. A stock character in fiction who embodies such an archetype.
   • The Nutty Professor franchise explores the light comedic potential of a mad scientist.
   • Dr Strangelove explores the darker comedic potential of a mad scientist.

   Synonyms:

   Doctor Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein, Dr Frankenstein, Frankenstein, mad professor

2. A real-life scientist who is asserted to embody such an archetype.
   • The mad scientists at Acme Labs have done it again! [said either approvingly or disparagingly]
   • Raffineaque, the eccentric, the "mad scientist," so called, yet one whose work in these later days has been proved to be of true worth, was for a time at the community.1903, William Henry Smith, The History of the State of Indiana from the Earliest Explorations by the French to the Present Time, volume 1, page 501
3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: a scientist who is insane, power-mad, or similarly deranged.
   • In the 1890s, some of the locals viewed the chemical plant as a folly run by mad scientists and venal aristocrats.
   • "She is coming down like a meteor," exclaimed Professor Kaye. "See, she begins to glow!" And so it was. The giant warship Behemoth, released by the forces of Nature, was falling back to earth from a height of 30 or 40 miles, and, acquiring a frightful speed, blazed up with the heat of friction in...1908, Raymond McDonald, The Mad Scientist: A Tale of the Future, Cochrane Publishing Company, page 242