Syn. -- Insanity; distraction; derangement; craziness; lunacy; mania;
frenzy; franticness; rage; aberration; alienation; monomania. See
Insanity.
Ma*don"na (?), n. [It. madonna my lady. See Dame, Donna, and cf.
Madame, Monkey.] 1. My lady; -- a term of address in Italian formerly
used as the equivalent of Madame, but for which Signora is now
substituted. Sometimes introduced into English. Shak.
2. [pl. Madonnas (nz).] A picture of the Virgin Mary (usually with the
babe).
The Italian painters are noted for drawing the Madonnas by their
own wives or mistresses.
Rymer.
||Ma"do*qua (?), n. (Zoöl.) A small Abyssinian antelope (Neotragus
||Saltiana), about the size of a hare.
||Ma`drague" (?), n. [R.] A large fish pound used for the capture of
||the tunny in the Mediterranean; also applied to the seines used for
||the same purpose.
Ma"dre*perl (?), n. [It. madreperla.] Mother-of-pearl.
<! p. 881 !>
||Mad`re*po"ra (md`r*p"r), n. [NL. See Madrepore.] (Zoöl.) A genus of
||reef corals abundant in tropical seas. It includes than one hundred
||and fifty species, most of which are elegantly branched. --
||Mad`re*po"ral (#), a.
||Mad`re*po*ra"ri*a (?), n. pl. [NL. See Madrepore.] (Zoöl.) An
||extensive division of Anthozoa, including most of the species that
||produce stony corals. See Illust. of Anthozoa. -- Mad`re*po*ra"ri*an
||(#), a. & n.
Mad"re*pore (?), n. [F. madrepore, perh. fr. madré spotted, fr. OF.
madre, mazre, a kind of knotty wood with brown spots, fr. OHG. masar a
knot, grain, or vein in wood, a speck, G. maser + pore (see Pore); or
perh. F. madrépore is rather from It. madrepora, and this perh. fr. It.
madre mother (see Mother) + Gr. &?; a soft stone.] (Zoöl.) Any coral of
the genus Madrepora; formerly, often applied to any stony coral.
{ Mad`re*po"ri*an (?), Mad`re*po"ric (?), } a. (Zoöl.) Resembling, or
pertaining to, the genus Madrepora.
Madreporic plate (Zoöl.), a perforated plate in echinoderms, through
which water is admitted to the ambulacral tubes; -- called also
madreporic tubercule.
Mad`re*po"ri*form (?), a. [Madrepore + -form.] (Zoöl.) Resembling a
madreporian coral in form or structure.
Mad"re*po*rite (?), n. [Cf. F. madréporite] 1. (Paleon.) A fossil
coral.