adverb

• 1With wildly uncontrolled emotion.

  ‘I started laughing hysterically’

  More example sentences

  • ‘my mother was crying hysterically’
  • ‘I got out of bed, sobbing hysterically.’
  • ‘One night, they hear the teacher laughing hysterically.’
  • ‘Turning round, I saw another of my neighbours bent over and giggling hysterically.’
  • ‘I tried to leave the room, and shrieked hysterically when either of them attempted to touch my face.’
  • ‘He did not notice the little kid that ran out of the back crying and screaming hysterically.’
  • ‘Danny was weeping hysterically.’
  • ‘I could hear Chris yelling hysterically in the background.’
  • ‘I could hear an officer shouting hysterically in a loudspeaker.’
  • ‘Many people have reacted hysterically to the idea of further cuts.’
  • ‘Governments will want to ensure that the public does not behave hysterically.’

  1. 1.1informal as submodifier Used to emphasize how funny something is.
     More example sentences

     • ‘a hysterically funny show’
     • ‘your website is hysterically amusing’
     • ‘There are highlights in the film, including the hysterically funny mad genius director.’
     • ‘Her character is hysterically funny.’
     • ‘The gags, if thin on the ground, are hysterically funny.’
     • ‘The wealthy and sadistic landowner is a caricature, complete with a clipped upper-class accent and hysterically pompous manner.’
     • ‘I was actually watching the start of one of the most hysterically goofy horror movies ever captured on celluloid.’
     • ‘She does a hysterically great job as the doting wife.’
     • ‘His cheesy dramatic delivery is both moving and hysterically entertaining.’
     • ‘It was such a bad joke that it was hysterically funny.’
     • ‘People were watching something that was absolutely mischievous and silly and wonderfully dumb, but hysterically funny.’
     • ‘He's got no problem devoting entire sequences of his film, including the hysterically inappropriate and silly ending, to music montages played out over entire songs.’