off one's head

Idioms  

1. Also,. Crazy, out of one's mind, as in You're off your head if you think I'll pay your debts, or I think Jerry's gone off his nut over that car, or When she said we had to sleep in the barn we thought she was off her rocker, or The old man's been off his trolley for at least a year. The expression using head is colloquial and dates from the mid-1800s, nut has been slang for “head” since the mid-1800s; rocker, dating from the late 1800s, may allude to an elderly person falling from a rocking chair; trolley, also dating from the late 1800s, may be explained by George Ade's use of it in Artie (1896): “Any one that's got his head full of the girl proposition's liable to go off his trolley at the first curve.” The last, chump, is also slang for “head” and was first recorded in 1859.

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Example Sentences

"Fun?" said Mrs. Reverdy with another echoing, softly echoing, laugh; "it's the fun of being torn and stained and scratched, and having one's hat pulled off one's hair, and the hair off one's head."

From Diana by Warner, Susan

It is enough to blow the hair off one's head.

From The Queen's Cup by Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)

"At least they are not likely to cut off one's head," said Aulus.

From Vergilius A Tale of the Coming of Christ by Bacheller, Irving

He would frighten the hair off one’s head if he could.”

From Wood Rangers The Trappers of Sonora by Reid, Mayne

And it was just lifted from me as one might take the cap off one's head.

From The Lake by Moore, George (George Augustus)

Related Words

• crazed
• delusional
• deranged
• unhinged