flip lid
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flip (one's) lid
1. To react to something with strong emotion. The reaction can be to something positive or negative. I had to talk to Mr. Myers about the botched report today, and boy, did he flip his lid. I knew Aunt June would be excited to hear I'm getting married, but she totally flipped her lid!
2. To go insane. Used humorously. Everyone thought I'd flipped my lid when I quit my lucrative marketing job and moved to India.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
flip (one's) lid
Slang1. To react strongly, as with anger or enthusiasm.
2. To go crazy.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
flip one's lid, to
To lose one’s temper, or to become very excited. An American slang expression dating from the twentieth century, it implies the metaphor of a pot boiling over and pushing off its cover. It appeared in 1951 in the New York Times Book Review: “The funniest book of the lot is enough to make a reader ‘flip’ or ‘flip his lid.’” The closely related flip one’s wig needs no explanation.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer