flip one's lid en · VERB
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Etymology
Originally an Americanism; from the analogy of a boiling pot explosively popping off its lid due to built-up internal pressure.
Meanings
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(idiomatic, informal) To become explosively angry, to lose one's temper.
Drag him out your window / Dragging out the dead / Singing "I miss you" / Snakes and ladders / Flip the lid
2003, Radiohead, “A Wolf at the Door”, in Hail to the Thief, performed by Thom Yorke:Wait, you'll see. Three hours on a night like this is enough to make you flip your lid.
1948, Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead, New York; Toronto: Rinehart & Company, page 113:His parents flipped their lids when the two lovebugs got hitched. Jonnie couldn't stand the fact that her beautiful young son, gone so long over seas, had now tangled up with an older woman, and even worse, an older divorced woman […]
2009, Dee Kassabian, My Four Fathers and Other Short Stories, page 45:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| flipped one's lid | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| flipped one's lid | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| flip the lid | alternative | lexicographic | |
| flipping one's lid | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| flips one's lid | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic |