freakout

American  

[freek-out] / ˈfrikˌaʊt /

noun

1. an act or instance of freaking out.

2. a person who freaks out.

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verb phrase

1. to lose or cause to lose emotional control from extreme excitement, shock, fear, joy, despair, etc..

   Seeing the dead body completely freaked him out.

2. to enter into or cause a period of irrational behavior or emotional instability, especially under the influence of a drug.

   to be freaked out on LSD.

Etymology

Origin of freakout

First recorded in 1965–70; noun use of verb phrase freak out (in the sense “to lose one's emotional control”

Example Sentences

Rivers’s signing had provoked a freakout over NFL development—Is America’s quarterback shortage this bleak?—but there was something to be said about having someone who’d done this before, many times.

From The Wall Street Journal

A What’s Wrong With the Eagles freakout is a Philadelphia staple, even in the plentiful years.

From The Wall Street Journal

In the process, his tactics have sparked a rule change from FIDE, instant backlash to the change, and sent the chess world into a full-blown freakout.

From The Wall Street Journal

The Go-Go’s Kathy Valentine shows up as a random hippie girl looking for Dennis Hopper’s house at the start of “Freakout at the Mud Palace.”

From Salon

This followed a similar freakout during Mardi Gras last year, when X users melted down over a video of a group of college-aged girls dancing to hip-hop at a gas station in Louisiana.

From Salon