craze

Etymology

From Middle English crasen (“to crush, break, break to pieces, shatter, craze”), from Old Norse *krasa (“to shatter”), ultimately imitative. Cognate with Scots krass (“to crush, squeeze, wrinkle”), Icelandic krasa (“to crackle”), Norwegian krasa (“to shatter, crush”), Swedish krasa (“to crack, crackle”), Danish krase (“to crack, crackle”), Faroese kras (“small pieces”).

noun

1. (archaic) craziness; insanity.
2. A strong habitual desire or fancy.
3. A temporary passion or infatuation, as for some new amusement, pursuit, or fashion; a fad.
   Winemaking was a huge craze in the 1970s, when affordable package holidays to the continent gave people a taste for winedrinking, but the recession made it hard to afford off-license prices back home. 2012, Alan Titchmarsh, The Complete Countryman: A User's Guide to Traditional Skills and Lost Crafts
4. (ceramics) A crack in the glaze or enamel caused by exposure of the pottery to great or irregular heat.

verb

1. (archaic) To weaken; to impair; to render decrepit.
2. To derange the intellect of; to render insane.
3. To be crazed, or to act or appear as one that is crazed; to rave; to become insane.
4. (transitive, intransitive, archaic) To break into pieces; to crush; to grind to powder. See crase.
5. (transitive, intransitive) To crack, as the glazing of porcelain or pottery.