have a screw loose
Meaning: To be harmlessly crazy.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Category: The Absurd
Origin: Draws on the plain mechanical reality that a single loose screw, easy to overlook, can throw off an entire device's performance or cause it to malfunction unpredictably — a small, hidden flaw with outsized consequences. Some sources trace the image to the late-1700s cotton industry, where newly mechanized textile machinery that broke down or produced flawed goods was informally said to have "a screw loose" somewhere inside it. The specifically human, mental application is documented by 1810, in an Edinburgh Review article describing an oddly behaving character exactly this way, and the phrase caught on widely in Victorian England — a period notably fascinated with using mechanical analogies to describe human character and behavior, treating an eccentric or unstable mind as a finely made machine with one small part gone wrong.
More idioms — The Absurd
- shot in the dark — A guess, often wild or based on little information.
- sleep like a log — To sleep so soundly that noise doesn't wake the person.
- snowball's chance in hell — No chance at all.
- sow one's wild oats — To do foolish or wild things, usually as a youth.
- speak of the devil — An expression used when someone who is being talked about has just appeared.
- strange bedfellows — People or things that one does not normally expect to find together.
More English idioms
- second-guess — To dispute or try to understand someone's reason for doing something.
- second-rate — Of inferior quality; not the best.
- have second thoughts — To begin to have doubts; to question and reexamine a decision.
- see red — To get angry.
- see something through — To finish something one has started.
- see the light — To understand something clearly.
From our proverbs
- Hope for the best, prepare for the worst — Optimism should be balanced with practical preparation.
- Don't make a mountain out of a molehill — Don't exaggerate small problems.
- Patience is a virtue — The ability to wait calmly is a valuable quality.
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