crackpot

[ krak-pot ]

/ ˈkrækˌpɒt /

Informal.

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noun

a person who is eccentric, unrealistic, or fanatical.

adjective

eccentric; impractical; fanatical: crackpot ideas.

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Origin of crackpot

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

Words nearby crackpot

crackly, cracknel, crack of dawn, crack of doom, crack on, crackpot, cracksman, crack the whip, crackup, crack willow, cracky

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use crackpot in a sentence

Depending on who you ask, JFK cemented Stone’s legacy as either a firebrand willing to speak truth to power, or a crackpot lost in a haze of make-believe.
Oliver Stone Yet Again Makes the Case That the CIA Killed JFK|Nick Schager|November 22, 2021|The Daily Beast
There’s denial that it’s happening, there are crackpot theories about what’s going on.
Andrew Sullivan doesn’t care what you think|Chris Johnson|September 22, 2021|Washington Blade
Yet disrupting the proceedings or diverting their focus toward some crackpot right-wing media obsession carries its own risks, precisely because the matter is so momentous.
Nancy Pelosi has backed Kevin McCarthy into a corner|Greg Sargent|July 2, 2021|Washington Post
It can be easy to write off our conspiracy theorist friends and relatives as crackpots, but science shows things are far more nuanced than that.
Why People Fall For Conspiracy Theories|Kaleigh Rogers|June 15, 2021|FiveThirtyEight

The society, founded in 1958, was fiercely anti-communist — and fond of crackpot theories.
Long before QAnon, Ronald Reagan and the GOP purged John Birch extremists from the party|Erick Trickey|January 15, 2021|Washington Post
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
That hardly sounds like some fire-breathing hard-right crackpot.
T.W. Shannon Is a Sign of Things to Come in the GOP|Ron Christie|June 26, 2014|DAILY BEAST
At an unaccredited college in Utah that was founded by acolytes of right-wing conspiracy-theorist crackpot Cleon Skousen.
Various Bits of Romney-Ryan Bashing All Rolled Into One Post!|Michael Tomasky|October 11, 2012|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
Projective telepathy had only been a crackpot's idea back then.
The Penal Cluster|Ivar Jorgensen (AKA Randall Garrett)
Other machines began to integrate crackpot reports of things sighted in divers places.
The Invaders|William Fitzgerald Jenkins
Calmly they accepted their rise in the world as being due to one of their local townspeople, a crackpot professor.
And Then the Town Took Off|Richard Wilson
She more or less considered him a crackpot, as far as I remember, you see.
Warren Commission (9 of 26): Hearings Vol. IX (of 15)|The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy
Crackpot minorities object loudly at being portrayed in films they don't like.
Reel Life Films|Samuel Kimball Merwin

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

crackpot

Origin of crackpot

Words nearby crackpot

Words related to crackpot

How to use crackpot in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for crackpot