(as) mad as a wet hen
(as) mad as a wet hen
Enraged; extremely or inconsolably angry. My dad was mad as a wet hen after I crashed his car. You make me as mad as a wet hen with the way you carry on sometimes, you know that?
See also: hen, mad, wet
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
mad as a wet hen
Extremely angry. The source of this expression is a bit puzzling, since hens, while not waterfowl, are not distressed by wetness. Conjecture has it that it comes from a farmer’s tossing a bucket of water at hens and thereby causing a flapping uproar. The term appears in Money in the Bank (1942) by that noted purveyor of clichés, P. G. Wodehouse. A more logical variant is mad as a hornet. H. L. Mencken referred to it as a familiar simile in The American Language (1919), and it continues to be used.
See also: hen, mad, wet
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- mad as a wet hen
- madder than a wet hen
- hornet
- mad as a hornet
- mad as a snake
- (as) mad as a hornet
- (as) mad as a snake
- (as) mad as hops
- mad as hell
- get mad