madder

Pluralmadders

1. 1
   adjective

   Comparative form of mad.

   The crowd grew madder as the referee kept ignoring the foul.

   He was far madder about the lie than about the mistake itself.

   Note

   The comparative doubles the d after the short vowel, giving mad, madder, maddest. It follows whichever sense of mad is in play. It can mean more deranged, or, in informal American use, angrier. Wilder or more foolish also fits. Only context separates it from the dye word, since the color adjective shares the spelling.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A herbaceous plant native to Asia, Rubia tinctorum, cultivated for the red-purple dye (alizarin) extracted from its roots.

   The dyer's garden was full of madder, harvested each fall for its roots.

   Cultivated madder spread westward from Asia along ancient trade routes.

   Note

   The plant behind the dye, the root and the color is an old one in English: Old English mædere, from a Proto-Indo-European *modʰro-. Its Slavic cousin *modrъ meant "blue," not red. Jesse Buel's The Farmers' Instructor (1841) describes the crop as farmers knew it: a perennial root under an annual stalk, grown for roots that were dried and ground before they went to the dyer.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A reddish dye extracted from the roots of the madder plant.

   Weavers dyed the yarn with madder before knotting the rug.

   Madder produces a range of reds depending on the mordant used.

   Note

   In the dyer's vat its red sits close to blood. E. R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros (1922) has armor "stained with madder, in such wise that they seemed bathed in blood." In this use it usually behaves as a mass noun. Things are dyed with madder or stained with madder, and the word names the substance itself, much as indigo does.

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A deep reddish color, like that of the dye obtained from the madder plant.

   The artist mixed a rich madder for the robes in the portrait.

   Faded to a dull madder, the old curtains had lost their glow.

   Similarcrimson, carmine, claret, burgundy

   Note

   As the name of a color it can take an article and adjectives. Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan (1946) has a face colored "to a dim and dreadful madder." Use the noun when the color is the thing named. Before another noun, as in a madder shade, the word is working as the color adjective.

5. 5
   adjective

   Of a deep reddish purple color, resembling the dye obtained from the madder plant.

   The walls were painted a madder shade that warmed the room.

   He admired the madder tones in the antique tapestry.

   Similarcrimson, burgundy, claret, maroon

   Note

   The color adjective has no degrees, so nothing is "madder" or "maddest" in this sense. Writers say deeper madder or a more purple madder instead. Be careful with the spelling, because the comparative of mad looks exactly like it. A madder robe is a color, but a madder king is a man losing his mind.

6. 6
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The root of the madder plant, used as a dye or as a medicine.

   The apothecary kept jars of dried madder for treating ailments.

   Crushed madder released a deep red pigment when soaked in water.

7. 7
   verbpronunciation spelling

   Eye dialect spelling of matter.

   "It don't madder what you wear to the dance," she told him.

   "Nothin' you say will madder to him now," the old man warned.

   Note

   A writer's way of putting speech on the page: the t of matter softened toward a d, as it often is in relaxed pronunciation. The meaning does not change. It is still the verb "to be important," usually in negatives such as it don't madder. Don't confuse it with the comparative of "mad", which has the same spelling. In dialogue, the surrounding sentence tells them apart.

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