unhinged
Americanadjective
-
having no hinge or hinges, or with the hinges removed.
an unhinged gate.
-
unsettled, disordered, or distraught.
He became unhinged when his friend died.
Etymology
Origin of unhinged
First recorded in 1710–20; unhinged ( def. 1 ) un- 1 + hinged ( def. ); unhinged ( def. 2 ) unhinge + -ed 2
Explanation
If someone's unhinged, they aren't completely sane. Unhinged is another way to say "crazy" or "out to lunch." Babysitting six kids between the ages of three and ten for an entire day might leave you feeling a little unhinged. More serious is when voters begin to worry that one of the presidential candidates is actually unhinged, appearing irrational and unpredictable. Unhinged stems from the less common verb unhinge, which meant "disorder the mind" before it was ever used to mean "take a door off its hinges."
Vocabulary lists containing unhinged
The Hunger Games
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And Then There Were None
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I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Who would suspect a frumpy matron in a humble sweater could wreak such unhinged havoc?
From Salon ● Oct. 18, 2026
In Charles Dickens’s “David Copperfield,” the stepfather is cruel to the point of unhinged.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
"I have done some incredibly unhinged things to survive," she said.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
On particularly volatile days, strategists and bond managers have expressed concerns about the risk of long-dated Treasury yields becoming unhinged.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026
He glided a hand laxly into her loose hair, twisting those soft yellow strands around his thin fingers which felt fragile and likely to snap, as if made of hollow, unhinged porcelain.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
