funny farm
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of funny farm
First recorded in 1960–65; funny 1 in the sense “strange, peculiar, odd” and farm in the sense “a place that serves a specified type of client”
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.
This subtle, amiable jailbird on temporary leave to the funny farm is saner than the men around him but he’s not necessarily brighter.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 25, 2023
Literary dementia seems dated now, but there was a time when a month in the funny farm was as de rigueur for budding writers as an MFA is now.
From Slate • Aug. 10, 2015
"I don't watch betting patterns and I think, if I did, I'd wind up in the funny farm."
From The Guardian • Jul. 19, 2012
His wacky onstage humor and macabre offstage antics have inspired the story that he is as strange as any of the characters he invents�one step away from the funny farm.
From Time Magazine Archive
I guess the police would figure me for a blithering idiot, a candidate for the funny farm, and my insurance company might have reason not to pay me after they canceled me.
From Terminal Compromise: computer terrorism: when privacy and freedom are the victims: a novel by Schwartau, Winn
Definitions 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.
