hysterical

UK /hɪˈstɛɹɪkəl/ US /hɪˈstɛɹɪkəl/
adj 3

Definitions

adj

1

Of, or arising from hysteria.

Henrietta gasped for breath; but she swallowed down the hysterical emotion, and signed with her hand for Walter to go on.

An event of this nature, a marriage, or a refusal, or a proposal, thrills through a whole household of women, and sets all their hysterical sympathies at work.

2

Having, or prone to having hysterics.

3

Provoking uncontrollable laughter.

She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid,[…]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.

There is a certain irony in all of this because in their hysterical use of charge of “double standard” – that Israel is being “singled out for criticism”– it is Israel’s supporters who are themselves guilty of a “double standard”, since, if they were to have their way, it is Israel that would be singled out as the only country that cannot be criticised.

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