screw loose

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English

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Noun

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screw loose (plural screws loose)

  1. (slang) A state of insanity or eccentricity.
    Synonyms: slate loose, tile loose
    I think there's a screw loose in that brain of hers!
  2. (slang, archaic) A state of enmity or disagreement.
    • 1830, Anna Maria Morgan, Horatio in Search of a Wife, page 155:
      I understand there's a screw loose between you two , so I've brought Morton that you may shake hands, and be comfortable together.
    • 1845, Times and Seasons, volume 6, page 1050:
      There is evidently a screw loose between us and some or other of the countries from which, according to royal speeches, we are everlastingly receiving assurances of love and amity.
    • 1880, Sir Augustus Phillimore, The Life of Admiral of the Fleet Sir William Parker, page 404:
      There is a screw loose between the Austrians and French about Venice, which the latter wish to remain as a Republic, and they are also rather angry with Prussia, but I hope the French squadron at Trieste will not come to blows.
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References

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  • John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary