stir-crazy

See also: stir crazy

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

First attested around 1925, from prison slang stir (jail or prison).[1]

Pronunciation

  • (file)

Adjective

stir-crazy (comparative more stir-crazy, superlative most stir-crazy)

  1. (slang) Of a prisoner, mentally unbalanced due to prolonged incarceration.
  2. (slang, by extension) Restless, uncomfortable, or impatient due to inactivity or confinement.
    After so many days of rain, the kids started to get a bit stir-crazy.
    • 2020 March 19, Megan Garber, “The Utter Weirdness of Small Talk in a Pandemic”, in The Atlantic:
      And many, at the same time, are anxious and bored and underemployed and overemployed and stir-crazy and uncertain and lonely and terrified.

See also

References

  1. Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “stir-crazy”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
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