trolley

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be off (one's) trolley

slang To be crazy and/or wacky. Usually used humorously. Don't listen to a word he says, he's off his trolley! You're off your trolley if you think that plan will work.

See also: off, trolley

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.

See also: off, trolley

*off one's rocker

and *off one's nut; *off one's trolley

Fig. crazy; silly. (*Typically: be ~; go ~.) Sometimes, Bob, I think you're off your rocker. Good grief, John. You're off your nut.

slip one's trolley

Sl. to become a little crazy; to lose one's composure. I was afraid I would slip my trolley. He slipped his trolley and went totally bonkers.

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 trolley

BRITISH, INFORMAL

If someone is off their trolley, they are behaving in a crazy way. If they think officers are going to give up their cars, they're off their trolley. Most people think I'm off my trolley, but I've never been so sure of anything in my life.

See also: off, trolley

off your trolley

crazy. informal

The trolley in this case is a pulley running on an overhead track that transmits power from the track to drive a tram; the idea is similar to that in go off the rails (see rail).

1983 Nathaniel Richard Nash The Young and Fair If you suspect Patty, you're off your trolley.

See also: off, trolley

off your ˈtrolley

(British English, informal) crazy; stupid: He’s completely off his trolley!

This idiom is similar to ‘go off the rails’ but refers to a tram (= a vehicle driven by electricity than runs on rails in the street) that has become disconnected from the power in the overhead track.

See also: off, trolley

off one’s trolley

mod. silly; eccentric. Don’t mind Uncle Charles. He’s a bit off his trolley.

See also: off, trolley

slip one’s trolley

tv. to become a little crazy; to lose one’s composure. (see also off one’s trolley.) I was afraid I would slip my trolley.

off (one's) rocker

Slang

Out of one's mind; crazy.

Now you're on the trolley

Now you catch on. “Trolley” refers to the streetcars that predated buses and subways in major cities. To flounder around to the answer to a question or how to perform some sort of procedure and then to come up with the right answer was the equivalent of getting on a trolley that's on the right track (as in track of streetcar rails).