crackpot

[ krak-pot ]

/ ˈkrækˌpɒt /

Informal.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR crackpot ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a person who is eccentric, unrealistic, or fanatical.

adjective

eccentric; impractical; fanatical: crackpot ideas.

Nearby words

Origin of crackpot

First recorded in 1860–65; from the phrase cracked pot

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for crackpot

Indeed, Wolf's journey to the crackpot fringe was completed a long time ago.
From ISIS to Ebola, What Has Made Naomi Wolf So Paranoid?|Michael Moynihan|October 11, 2014|DAILY BEAST
In small steps, the crackpot architectural ideas of the past are becoming built parts of our cities.
Why Architects Dream Big—and Crazy|Nate Berg|August 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
But according to the Serious Men and Women of Washington, the FRC is not a crackpot outfit.
Why Must We Take the Family Research Council Seriously?|Michael Tomasky|September 17, 2012|DAILY BEAST
That has become the accepted theory, and anyone talking seriously about refrigerator mothers today would be considered a crackpot.
Study Says Older Fathers Linked to Autism, Gives Mothers a Break|Hannah Brown|August 24, 2012|DAILY BEAST

Critiques were drawn of the various fashionable conservative notions, which made them seem gimmicky at best, crackpot at worst.
Can Careful Mitt Romney Go Bold on Taxes at the CNN Debate?|Peter J. Boyer|February 22, 2012|DAILY BEAST
The possibility that the crackpot fringe could produce such a break-through panicked him.
The Great Gray Plague|Raymond F. Jones
"I remember he threw away what should have been your inheritance on a flock of crackpot ideas," he told her.
A World Apart|Samuel Kimball Merwin
Maybe the guy was a crackpot or phony, but it wouldn't hurt to hear his story.
The Chameleon Man|William P. McGivern
These had to be investigated—every lousy, crackpot one of them.
The Great Gray Plague|Raymond F. Jones
This wasn't any hit or miss revival, started by a crackpot, or by some schemer for his own enrichment.
The Image and the Likeness|John Scott Campbell

British Dictionary definitions for crackpot

crackpot

/ (ˈkrækˌpɒt) informal /

noun

an eccentric person; crank

adjective

(usually prenominal) eccentric; crazy

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for crackpot

crackpot

"mentally unbalanced person," by 1900, probably from crack + pot (n.1) in a slang sense of "head." Cf. crack-brain "crazy fellow" (late 16c.). Earlier it was used in a slang sense "a small-time big-shot" (1883), and by medical doctors in reference to a "metallic chinking sometimes heard when percussion is made over a cavity which communicates with a bronchus."

crackpot

noun

adjective

RELATED WORDS

Nearby words

Origin of crackpot

Examples from the Web for crackpot

crackpot

noun

adjective

crackpot