rocker
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be off (one's) rocker
To be crazy or mentally unsound; to be extremely foolish or foolhardy. I think Jane's grandmother is a little off her rocker these days. You must be off your rocker if you think that's a good idea!
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) rocker
Crazy; mentally unsound; extremely foolish. I'm going to go off my rocker if I have to hear that song one more time! I think Jane's grandmother is a little off her rocker these days. You must be off your rocker if you think that's a good idea!
*off one's rocker
and *off one's nut; *off one's trolleyFig. crazy; silly. (*Typically: be ~; go ~.) Sometimes, Bob, I think you're off your rocker. Good grief, John. You're off your nut.
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.
off one's rocker
Also, off one's nut or trolley . See off one's head.
off your rocker
INFORMALIf someone is off their rocker, they are crazy. He must be off his rocker, paying that much for a shirt! Note: You can also say that someone goes off their rocker to mean that they become crazy. Sometimes I think he's going off his rocker.
off your rocker
crazy. informalA rocker in this expression is a concave piece of wood or metal placed under a chair or cradle enabling it to rock back and forth.
1932 Evelyn Waugh Black Mischief It's going to be awkward for us if the Emperor goes off his rocker.
ˌoff your ˈrocker
(informal, spoken, especially British English) (of a person) crazy: Spend a thousand pounds on a dress! Are you off your rocker?off one’s rocker
mod. silly; giddy; crazy. (see also rocker.) That silly dame is off her rocker.
rocker
1. n. a rocking chair. (Not slang.) I love to spend a sunny afternoon in my rocker.
2. n. a rock and roll singer, song, or fan. (see also off one’s rocker.) Let’s listen to a good rocker.
off (one's) rocker
Slang Out of one's mind; crazy.
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.
off one's head, rocker, etc.
See go off one's head.
See also: off