cactused

English

Alternative forms

cactussed

Etymology

From cactus +‎ -ed. Australian colloquialism may have originated as a result of the Australian prickly pear plague in the early 20th century, which overran farmland, making it unusable.

Pronunciation

Audio (General Australian): (file)

Adjective

cactused (comparative more cactused, superlative most cactused)

Featuring a cactus or cacti.
- 1954, Dylan Thomas, Quite Early One Morning, New Directions Publishing, published 1981, →ISBN, page 10:
  I could not imagine Cadwallader Davies the grocer, in his near-to-waking dream, riding on horseback, two-gunned and Cody-bold, through the cactused prairies.
- 1977, Jack Couffer, Mike Couffer, Canyon Summer, Putnam, →ISBN, page 13:
  On top it's a dry cactused area inhabited by typical upper desert creatures such as kangaroo rats and collared lizards.
- 2008, Bill Hunger, Hiking Wyoming: 110 of the State's Best Hiking Adventures, Falcon Guides, →ISBN, page 20:
  Ponderosa forests, open meadows, cactused badlands, and river-carved sedimentary layers make appearances.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:cactused.
(Australia, slang) Broken; ruined; no longer working, more recently especially related to a technical system.
My computer is cactused.
- 1986, Daryl Guppy, "Some Days Are Rocks", in A Bundle of Yarns (ed. Michael Kavanagh); quoted in Susan Butler, The Dinkum Dictionary, The Text Publishing Company (2009), →ISBN, page 66:
  His high spirits descended temporarily. 'It took me thirty minutes to get her going again. The lift pump is cactused.'
- 2001 December 20, bsa [username], “Re: Dingoblue Email Problems”, in aus.net.access‎^[1] (Usenet):
  the only time this does not work is when my DNS name server is cactused (which happens once or twice a year.)
- 2013, Amanda King, “Teaching bike skills in the APY lands”, in Cycle!, Number 157, February-April 2013, page 12:
  Maintenance has never been my favorite pursuit, and many of these repairs were complex and demanding, often requiring pulling parts off a cactused bike, and refitting them to a salvageable one.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:cactused.
(Australia, slang) In trouble, screwed.
- 2007, Kevin James Baker, Economic Tsunami: China's Car Industry Will Sweep Away Western Car Makers, Rosenberg Publishing, →ISBN, page 22:
  'Mini — and that's managed by the Germans, by BMW. I tell you, Walshie, a lot of car makers around the world are cactussed. We're not Robinson Crusoe. But if times are tough now, what'll they be like when the Chinese arrive? If the UK's down to one profitable car maker. D'you think we can possibly hold on to four?'
- 2008 May 22, John Ward, “Re: Helicopter - Wish I had more guts!!”, in alt.games.microsoft.flight-sim‎^[2] (Usenet):
  Good thing somebody figured out the radio, otherwise you all would have been cactused, in a remote location like that, mate.
- 2009 June 20, Phillip Adams, “On balance, we're okay”, in The Australian:
  The purpose of today's column is to cheer us both up, despite the inescapable fact the world is f..ked, not to mention cactused, knackered, stuffed, rooted and ruined

Synonyms

(featuring cacti): cactusy
(no longer working): See also Thesaurus:out of order
(in trouble): See also Thesaurus:in trouble