sb. and a. [f. as prec. + -ITE.] A. sb. An inmate of Bedlam or of a lunatic asylum; a madman or lunatic.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. iv. I. v. Such raging bedlamites, as are tied in chains.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. 489. More fit … to be read by Bedlamites than pretenders to vertue and modesty.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pic. (1779), III. lxxxi. 168. Lord B—— raved like a bedlamite.
1822. Byron, Juan, VI. xxxiv. Like … bedlamites broke loose.
b. attrib. or adj. Lunatic, mad.
1815. Scott, Guy M., liii. ‘The devil take the bedlamite old woman!’
a. 1852. Moore, Three Doctors, v. Dr. Slop, upon subjects divine, Such bedlamite slaver lets drop.
