Dictionary

lose it en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (informal) To be overcome with emotion. ▸ To become explosively angry; to lose one's temper.
   • When my dad found out I had failed the exams, he just lost it.
2. (informal) To be overcome with emotion. ▸ To feel devastated, or distraught, especially when one's sadness is overwhelming.
   • When she heard the news about her cousin's death, she lost it.
3. (informal) To be overcome with emotion. ▸ To begin to laugh uncontrollably.
   • When the teacher's chair broke, the class completely lost it.
4. (informal) To be overcome with emotion. ▸ To lose one's mind, go crazy.
5. (informal) To cease to have a skill or ability, to lose one's touch, to be washed up.
   • When you think about all she's done for the sport, it's kind of sad, but she's completely lost it over the past few years.
6. (idiomatic) To lose control of a situation.
   • Charlie is seated in a wheelchair, his head face down on the tray, food and liquid strewn all over the floor and nearby counter. He appears to be unconscious. His feet and hands are swollen far beyond normal size. Horrified, I say his name softly. He doesn't stir. […] Later I'm told he'd "lost it" — must've just before I got there. The doctors fear it's due to CNS (Central Nervous System) damage or lesions on his brain. If so, the end is probably near. 1988 February 14, Marea Murray, “Friction Between The Factions”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 30, page 6:
   • Even then, she defended everything she had sought to achieve, saying she had “the right policies at the wrong time”. “That’s when I thought ‘she’s totally lost it’,” said a former aide. 2023 September 1, Aubrey Allegretti, “‘She’s totally lost it’: inside story of the unravelling of Liz Truss’s premiership”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 03 Feb 2024:
7. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see lose, it.
   • ‘I’m Inspector Harper, Leeds police. Where did you lose it?’ / ‘Lose it?’ He laughed. ‘I’d never lose this. It was stolen.’ 2015, Chris Nickson, Two Bronze Pennies, Severn House Publishers, →ISBN:

Forms

Synonyms

hit the roof (to be explosively angry) · lose one's temper (to be explosively angry) · flip out (to be explosively angry) · hit the ceiling (to be explosively angry) · blow one's top (to be explosively angry) · freak out (to be explosively angry) · go snake (to be explosively angry) · crash out (to be explosively angry) · go ape (to be explosively angry) · lose one's rag (to be explosively angry) · flip shit (to be explosively angry) · go apeshit (to be explosively angry)

Translations (15)

fi menettää malttinsa (to lose one's temper) · de die Selbstbeherrschung verlieren (to lose one's temper) · pt perder a linha (to lose one's temper) · es desmandarse (to lose one's temper) · no klikke (to lose one's temper) · it perdere le staffe (to lose one's temper) · pt perder as estribeiras (to lose one's temper) · es enajenarse (to lose one's temper) · es despendolarse (to lose one's temper) · de die Beherrschung verlieren (to lose one's temper) · es desmelenarse (to lose one's temper) · mi tātāhau (to lose one's temper) · es desmadrarse (to lose one's temper) · es perder los papeles (to lose one's temper) · es perder los nervios (to lose one's temper)