1. [n]  an interest followed with exaggerated zeal; "he always follows the latest fads"; "it was all the rage that season"
2. [n]  state of violent mental agitation
3. [v]  develop a fine network of cracks; "Crazed ceramics"
4. [v]  cause to go crazy; cause to lose one's mind

Craze
In 1720, a new drink emerged as the overwhelming drug of choice among London`s working poor. Cheap, potent, and available on virtually any street corner, gin was the original urban drug. It numbed thousands to the cold, hunger, fatigue, and filth that were the lot of the underclass. Gin also started an epidemic--known as the gin craze--which swept through English society from low to high, turning neighbor against neighbor, husband against wife, citizen against society. All the great voices of the day weighed in on gin, known to the happy many as Mother Gin or Madam Geneva, and to the unfortunate few as the ladies` delight or cuckold`s comfort. Samuel Johnson detested the stuff. William Hogarth spoke of the idleness, poverty, misery, and distress it brought about. Henry Fielding wrote of the infant conceived in gin, along with its more general dreadful effects, which he had the Misfortune every Day to see, and to smell too. Daniel Defoe could go either way on it depending on who was stuffing his pockets at the moment. Over the thirty-year history of the gin craze, London began to change from a medieval capital to a thoroughly modern urban metropolis, with all the problems of a modern city. Parliament waged its own war on drugs with a series of gin acts designed to restrict sales and reform the morals of the lower classes. Ordinary men and women fought tooth and nail to save their friends and neighbors from laws that were generally regarded as harsh and unjust. The craze even gave rise to its own urban legends--spontaneous combustion, for one--as well as gangs, informers, and its own brand of street justice known as the rough discipline of the rabble. Jessica Warner has written a lively and accessible social history that examines the impact of Mother Gin from all perspectives--personal, political, sociological, economic, military, and sexual. She draws on hundreds of primary sources, from the anonymous to Defoe and Dr. Johnson, guiding us th

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1. \Craze\ (kr[=a]z), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Crazed}
   (kr[=a]zd); p. pr. & vb. n. {Crazing}.] [OE. crasen to break,
   fr. Scand., perh. through OF.; cf. Sw. krasa to crackle,
   sl[*a] i kras, to break to pieces, F. ['e]craser to crush,
   fr. the Scand. Cf. {Crash}.]
   1. To break into pieces; to crush; to grind to powder. See
      {Crase}.
            God, looking forth, will trouble all his host, And
            craze their chariot wheels.           --Milton.
   2. To weaken; to impair; to render decrepit. [Obs.]
            Till length of years, And sedentary numbness, craze
            my limbs.                             --Milton.
   3. To derange the intellect of; to render insane.
            Any man . . . that is crazed and out of his wits.
                                                  --Tilloston.
            Grief hath crazed my wits.            --Shak.
   

2. \Craze\, v. i.
   1. To be crazed, or to act or appear as one that is crazed;
      to rave; to become insane.
            She would weep and he would craze.    --Keats.
   2. To crack, as the glazing of porcelain or pottery.
   

3. \Craze\, n.
   1. Craziness; insanity.
   2. A strong habitual desire or fancy; a crotchet.
            It was quite a craze with him [Burns] to have his
            Jean dressed genteelly.               --Prof.
                                                  Wilson.
   3. A temporary passion or infatuation, as for same new
      amusement, pursuit, or fashion; as, the bric-a-brac craze;
      the [ae]sthetic craze.
            Various crazes concerning health and disease. --W.
                                                  Pater.
   

4. \Craze\, n. (Ceramics)
   A crack in the glaze or enamel such as is caused by exposure
   of the pottery to great or irregular heat.