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have a screw loose
Idioms and Phrases
Be mentally unstable or eccentric, as in Anyone who approves that purchase must have a screw loose . This term likens a mental weakness to a machine in which a part is not securely fastened. An antonym is have one's head screwed on right ; for example, She's very capable; she has her head screwed on right . [ Slang ; early 1800s]Example Sentences
âEveryone in speedskating recognizes that Eric Heiden is the greatest speedskater who ever lived. Even saying, âYeah, we should try that,â thatâs like saying, âDo you have a screw loose or something?â
But, Mr Cummings tells the BBC that anyone who says they are sure, five years after the result, that Brexit is a good thing must "have a screw loose".
âYou are either incompetent or for some reason you have a screw loose and you want to have open borders.â
Wlodzimierz Lipa, a 71-year-old pensioner who got his second Pfizer shot last week in Walbrzych, said that people attacking the mayor as a Nazi âhave a screw loose.â
âHe said, âYou kind of have to have a screw loose to do this,ââ Wood said.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American HeritageŸ Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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