go bananas

1. Act crazy, as in When it comes to animal rights, some people go bananas. According to the lexicographer J. E. Lighter, this expression may allude to the similar go ape, in that apes and other primates are closely associated with eating bananas. [Slang; second half of 1900s]

Example Sentences

He’s got too much on his mind to allow this monkey to really go bananas, and his indecision makes the movie’s nihilistic viewpoint feel all the more hollow and forced.

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Across the lawn, demonstrators carried signs that ranged from a handmade “Free Hugs Jewish Students” to pre-printed “I go bananas for Israel” — a taunt aimed at reports of someone with a banana allergy in the pro-Palestinian encampment.

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Confession: I don’t always go bananas for depictions of food in art, but April brings a smattering of excellent and tasty shows.

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“Yet it’s not cluttered up; it’s streamlined and simple. Whatever we did was going to be seen in that opening shot of the train going through Asteroid City, so we couldn’t go bananas and let any part of it get too big and out of control.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Ms. Haley, at long last—are you going to go bananas, or not?

Read more on Slate

Related Words

• babble 
• freak out 
• fume 
• go crazy www.thesaurus.com
• rant