crackers en · ADJ
Etymology
From cracker + -s. The South African sense is from their sound and its status as a plurale tantum by association with trousers. The adjectival sense derives from British naval expressions referring to firecrackers in one's head, originally as "he's got the crackers" and then "he's gone crackers" before the present "he is crackers".
Meanings
-
(UK, colloquial) Crazy, insane.
“I will call up Demons to destroy thee!” “You're crackers,” said Carrot, backing away.
1970, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 28:He acknowledges that it must seem "a crackers thing to say", but given the substantial progress which has been made in other areas of the business, his optimism isn't without foundation.
2021 May 5, Graeme Pickering, “Managing Metro's morphosis”, in RAIL, number 930, page 52:Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, told the online magazine UnHerd in May that Truss was “as close to properly crackers as anybody I have met in parliament” and would be an “even worse” prime minister than Johnson.
2022 July 30, Dominic Cummings, quotee, “‘Ambition greater than ability’: Liz Truss’s rise from teen Lib Dem to would-be PM”, in The Guardian:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| more crackers | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most crackers | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |
Synonyms
barmy · daffy · hatstand · psychotic · mental · wackadoodle · sicko · dotty · potty · distraught · over the edge · nerts · nucking futs · psychoceramic · nut · bonkers · fruit loops · mentally ill · crazy as a bedbug · off the chain · crazed · loco · off the beam · moonsick · buggy · harebrained · 5150 · barking · zany · nutso · doolally · loopy · disturbed · loon · bread baskets · unsane · nutter · whackjob · daft · tonto · bat-shit · fucked up · batpoop · loony · nonsane · bughouse · squirrelly · weird · crazy as a pet coon · fucked in the head · starkers · apeshit · demented · buggish · mad · crackers · cracked · nuts · crazy · insane · nutballs · eccentric · whacko · loony tunes · unbalanced · batcrap · wode · cra-cra · nutty · batchy · yampy · bananas · ripshit · non compos mentis · meshugge · lunatic · crazy as a cootie bug · batshit · kooky · batty · crazy as a cootie · cray · cray-cray · barking mad · bats · cuckoo · nut job · deranged · meshigener · gaga · psycho · whacky · screwy