be off (one's) chump
To be crazy. In the UK, "chump" is a slang term for "head." You're off your chump if you think that plan will work. You can't tell people you want to start a business selling bees as pets—they'll think you're off your chump! There's a guy on our corner who shouts about the end of the world—pretty sure he's off his chump.
chump change
A tiny, trifling, or inconsequential amount of money. To most people, $2,000 is a lot to spend on anything, but to the country's mega rich, it is merely chump change. I'm only getting paid chump change for all this hard work I'm doing. After I come home from a vacation, all I have left in my bank account is chump change.
chumphead
slang An utter fool; a stupid or incompetent person. You chumphead! You completely screwed up the machinery! I swear, the board of directors must be made up of a bunch of chumpheads, considering the direction this company is headed. You can't tell people you want to start a business selling bees as pets—they'll think you're a total chumphead!
go off (one's) chump
To become crazy or mentally unsound. Usually used hyperbolically. I think Jane's grandmother has gone off her chump lately. I'm going to go off my chump if I have to hear that blasted song once more! You want to quit your job so you can sell bees for a living? Have you gone off your chump?
go off (one's) head
To become crazy or mentally unsound. Usually used hyperbolically. I think Jane's grandmother has gone off her head lately. I'm going to go off my head if I have to hear that blasted song once more! You want to quit your job so you can sell bees for a living? Have you gone off your head?
go off (one's) rocker
To become crazy or mentally unsound; to become extremely foolish or foolhardy. I'm going to go off my rocker if I have to hear that blasted song once more! I think Jane's grandmother has gone off her rocker lately. You must have gone off your rocker if you think that's a good idea!
off (one's) chump
Crazy or insane. He must be off his chump to pay that much money for that old car. Am I completely off my chump for starting a business in this economy?
off (one's) nut
Crazy or insane. I think you're off your nut for changing careers this late in life, but, hey, follow your dreams. He's off his nut if he thinks he can get that engine fixed by this weekend.
off (one's) trolley
Crazy or insane. When he told me about his plan to renovate the old, condemned house, I immediately thought he was off his trolley. You must be off your trolley if you think you can lift that heavy box by yourself.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
chump change
A trivial sum of money, a trivial matter. For example,
Dave was sick of working for chump change; he wanted a decent salary, or
Don't put that on the agenda; it's chump change. This expression uses
chump in the sense of "a fool or sucker who should be ignored." [
Slang; 1960s] Also see
chicken feed.
off one's head
Also, off one's nut or rocker or trolley or chump . 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.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
go off one's chump/head/rocker, to
To go crazy; to become insane. The oldest of these three expressions is “off his head,” which was current although slangy by the time Thomas Hood wrote The Turtles (1844), “He was ‘off his head.’” The word chump became British slang for “head” in the late nineteenth century; subsequently, “off his chump” was used several times by Shaw, in Pygmalion and Heartbreak House. Off one’s rocker comes from the same period, but its origin is more puzzling. One writer suggests it may indirectly allude to the elderly, associated with both rocking chairs and diminished mental capacity. Yet another variant is to go off one’s trolley, which alludes to a motorman getting off a streetcar to reposition the trolley wheel on the overhead wire that carried electric current to the car’s motor. To be disconnected from this power source came to mean becoming crazy, a usage dating from the late 1890s. With the demise of streetcars in many American cities, this expression is heard less often today.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer