unhinged

English

Etymology 1

From unhinge +‎ -ed.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ʌnˈhɪndʒd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪndʒd

Adjective

unhinged (comparative more unhinged, superlative most unhinged)

1. (figuratively, usually humorous) Mentally ill or unstable; deranged; insane.

   Antonym: hinged

   • 1876, “Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne”, in The Encyclopædia Britannica […] ‎^[1], Ninth edition, Volume IV, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, page 178, column 1:

     The revolution of 1830 and the discomforts of his private life so preyed upon his mind that his reason became unhinged, and he had to be removed to an asylum near Caen, where he died in 1834.

   • 1998, SPIN, page 78:

     After the screening, a large crowd filled the street outside the theater, playing spot-the-sublebrity with some of the film's prime characters, including Nirvana photographer Alice Wheeler and Love's estranged (and notoriously unhinged) father.

   • 2022 October 10, Jenna Scherer, “House Of The Dragon drops its best episode yet”, in AV Club‎^[2]:

     While ruling is going relatively well for Alicent, motherhood isn’t; her sons have both grown up to be real pieces of shit. Aemond (now played by Ewan Mitchell) has grown from a bullied child into a bullying adult; and it’s obvious from one look into his single eye that the bullied kid we met six years ago has grown up to be the most unhinged kind of sadist.

Derived terms

• come unhinged
• hinged

Translations

mentally ill or unstable — see also deranged

• French: dérangé (fr), déséquilibré (fr), détraqué (fr)
• German: verrückt (de), verwirrt (de), verstört (de)
• Māori: wairangi
• Plautdietsch: errsennich
• Portuguese: desvairado (pt)
• Russian: свихну́вшийся (ru) (svixnúvšijsja)
• Spanish: desquiciado (es), trastornado (es), desencajado (es)

Verb

unhinged

1. simple past and past participle of unhinge

Etymology 2

From un- +‎ hinged.

Adjective

unhinged (comparative more unhinged, superlative most unhinged)

1. Not furnished with a hinge.

   an unhinged door

2. (philately, of a stamp) Not having ever been mounted using a stamp hinge.

Translations

not furnished with a hinge

• German: aus der Angel
• Spanish: desquiciado (es), desgoznado (es), desencajado (es)

never been mounted using a stamp hinge

• German: ungefalzt

See also

• MNH
• MUH