lunatic fringe

American  

noun

1. members on the periphery of any group, especially political, social, or religious, who hold extreme or fanatical views.

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lunatic fringe British  

noun

1. the members of a society or group who adopt or support views regarded as extreme or fanatical

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lunatic fringe Cultural  

1. Derogatory name for the extreme radical members of a group, especially in politics: “The candidate referred to the organization as being on the lunatic fringe of conservatism.” The term was coined by Theodore Roosevelt.

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Etymology

Origin of lunatic fringe

An Americanism dating back to 1910–15

Example Sentences

All that can be dismissed as the ravings of the lunatic fringe, but it is being taken seriously in Jordan and Egypt.

From BBC • Nov. 13, 2023

Now maybe all this is just the lunatic fringe acting out and nothing will come of it.

From Salon • Oct. 4, 2021

Her staff, she added with a laugh, “took it as mail from the lunatic fringe and just tossed it.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 22, 2021

Unfortunately for the lunatic fringe, however, those events were just horse races:

From Slate • Jun. 7, 2018

Transcendentalism, like all idealistic movements, had its "lunatic fringe," its camp-followers of excitable, unstable visionaries.

From The American Spirit in Literature : a chronicle of great interpreters by Perry, Bliss