Definition of "hysterical" []

• Of, characterized by, or arising from hysteria. (adjective)
• Having or prone to having hysterics. (adjective)
• Informal Extremely funny: told a hysterical story. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Some of the little folks we watch grow up to be young women, and occasionally one of them gets nervous, what we call hysterical, and then that girl will begin to play all sorts of pranks, -- to lie and cheat, perhaps, in the most unaccountable way, so that she might seem to a minister a good example of total depravity."
• "The mental benefits to children of all ages through the contact with animals by far exceed the dangers of what I call a hysterical reaction."
• "I find the term hysterical, and personally, I don’t think we use it nearly enough here in the colonies."