hectic

adj

1. (figuratively)Very busy with activity and confusion.

   “The city center is so hectic at 8 in the morning that I go to work an hour beforehand to avoid the crowds”

   “Phoenix:It must have been too hectic that night to clean up.”

2. (obsolete)Denoting a type of fever accompanying consumption and similar wasting diseases, characterised by flushed cheeks and dry skin.

   “hectic fever”

3. (obsolete)Pertaining to or symptomatic of such a fever.

   “Ann had a hectic cough, and many unfavourable prognostics […].”

   “She never complained, but sleep and appetite fled from her, a slow fever preyed on her veins, her colour was hectic, and she often wept in secret […].”

noun

1. (obsolete)A hectic fever.

   “[…] Do it England, / For like the Hecticke in my blood he rages, / And thou muſt cure me: […]”

2. (obsolete)A flush like one produced by such a fever.

   “The poor Franciscan made no reply: a hectic of a moment pass’d across his cheek, but could not tarry […]”

   “For still he lay, and on his thin worn cheek / A purple hectic played like dying day / On the snow-tops of distant hills […]”

   “an angry hectic in each cheek, a fierce flirt of her fan, and two or three short sniffs that betokened mischief”