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View synonyms for haywire

haywire

[ hey-wahyuhr ]

noun

  1. wire used to bind bales of hay.


adjective

, Informal.
  1. in disorder:

    The town is haywire because of the bus strike.

  2. out of control; disordered; crazy:

    The car went haywire. He's been haywire since he got the bad news.

haywire

/ ˈheɪˌwaɪə /

adjective

  1. (of things) not functioning properly; disorganized (esp in the phrase go haywire )
  2. (of people) erratic or crazy


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Word History and Origins

Origin of haywire1

First recorded in 1900–05; hay + wire

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Word History and Origins

Origin of haywire1

C20: alluding to the disorderly tangle of wire removed from bales of hay

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Idioms and Phrases

see go haywire .

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Example Sentences

That conservatorship expired, however, this month and, almost immediately a source tells TMZ, “Things started going haywire.”

“Every time a rocket was launched, my phone went haywire,” said Dor Eldar, a 22-year-old dance instructor from Tel Aviv.

But then things went haywire on Sunday, and 21 separate shooting incidents occurred.

Things simply go haywire outside the boundaries and cells (and people) die.

Wolf is about the American Dream gone haywire, so exaggeration is the name of the game.

I said our air-conditioning system goes haywire and that we were ripping out a thousand old boilers and coolers.

"Just my imagination going a little haywire from it all, I fancy," he said.

"Yeah, my guns went haywire for some unknown reason," he said eventually.

Horses with patched civilian harness gave the transport the appearance of a "haywire outfit."

We can't know, of course, but if you were a warehouse clerk and a big rocket went haywire, wouldn't you be out watching it?

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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