nutso en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- /ˈnʌ.t͡soʊ/ (General-American)
- /ˈnʌt.soʊ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
Etymology
Etymology tree English nuts Latin ō Old French ohbor. Middle English o English O ▲ Middle English o English oh English -o English nutso From nuts + -o.
Meanings
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(colloquial) Crazy, insane.
"I was wondering if you had any crazy nutso guy stalking you, or something."
2005, G. R. Kirby, Sow the Storm:"It's a bit scary if you have a difficult boss, and it's out-and-out frightening if you have a completely nutso, maladjusted, irrational, or disturbed boss."
2000, Robert Bacal, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Dealing With Difficult Employees:"You wanted a report, so here's a full report: crazy, nutso, raisins short of a fruitcake, rubber walls, screaming-mad basket-cases."
2000, Zadie Smith, White Teeth, London: Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN:
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(colloquial) Fraught or out of control.
A nutso relationship is no joke, and no baby should be exposed to that.
2013, Tracy Moore, Oops! How to Rock the Mother of All Surprises, →ISBN, page 114:In 1969, one of the wire spoolers goes nutso, breaks off its mooring, the wire lashing about like a horse's tail trying to chase away a fly.
2013, Chuck Wendig, Unclean Spirits, →ISBN:I put my hand to my chest—my heart was going nutso.
2010, Alison Seay, Your Mom's a Vampire!, page 1:How being taught to not cut corners, even in a nutso emergency room shift, meant I checked all regions in Mary below the waist and didn't just tell her I thought it was probably gas.
2005, Phyllis Hollenbeck, Sacred Trust: The Ten Rules of Life, Death, and Medicine, →ISBN, page 40:
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(colloquial) Obsessed; overly enthusiastic.
I'm nutso about AnnRice, R.L. Stine, Dean Koontz.
2002, Pamela Hayes, The Lie, →ISBN:Even the most nutso fisherman would think twice about going out on the lake today.
2001, Kathryn North, Proud Mari, →ISBN, page 7:Don't get scared when Dani goes nutso over decorations— it's normal and then they change back.
2013, Cindi Madsen, Falling For Her Fiance (Entangled Bliss), →ISBN:My dad wants to send heirloom tomato seeds there. He's nutso about tomatoes.
2011, Laird Foster, The Lux Proofs, →ISBN, page 287:
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(colloquial) Ridiculous; unbelievable or silly.
This is a nutso project they've taken on, but it's their nutso project, not ours.
2009, Sally John, Gary Smalley, A Time to Surrender, →ISBN, page 30:Trust me, we both can find fringe fanatics to prove the other side is nutso. So let's stop with this stereotypical silliness.
2008, Becky Garrison, The New Atheist Crusaders and Their Unholy Grail, →ISBN, page 55:She made us go through this nutso warrior ceremony.
2010, John O'Keefe, The Spread, →ISBN, page 253:Forget the mechanical, materlial, solid model of communication, bring in the invisible but very real web rings. Internet, hacking and so on; puerile conversations of chat pages, insane obsessions with nutso things.
2000, Finola Moorhead, Darkness More Visible, →ISBN, page 133:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| nutzo | alternative | lexicographic | |
| more nutso | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most nutso | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |