basket case
Offensive. a person who has had all four limbs amputated.
a person who is helpless or incapable of functioning normally, especially due to overwhelming stress, anxiety, or the like.
anything that is impaired or incapable of functioning: Right after the war the conquered nation was considered an economic basket case.
Origin of basket case
1usage note For basket case
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use basket case in a sentence
If not for the writing and singing of songs, she might very well be a basket case.
Married To Mr Burns: Life, Love, And Jealousy In The Music Of Judith Owen | Lloyd Grove | May 7, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTSo is Phoenix finally ready to drop the basket-case act and play nice in Hollywood?
The Return of Joaquin Phoenix: Oscar Buzz for ‘The Master’ | Chris Lee | September 17, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTTo hear him tell it, Phoenix is at peace with coming off like a wild, unhinged basket case for the past few years.
The Return of Joaquin Phoenix: Oscar Buzz for ‘The Master’ | Chris Lee | September 17, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTAfter years of the party acting like a political basket case prone to hysterical psychodrama, Sunday's vote was itself a triumph.
Greece remains a fiscal basket case, as well as a warning sign.
Poor Otto ended up a basket case, just in time to have the damned stuff start all over again at the stumps of his arms and legs.
Highways in Hiding | George Oliver Smith
British Dictionary definitions for basket case
a person who is suffering from extreme nervous strain; nervous wreck
mainly US and Canadian taboo a person who has had both arms and both legs amputated
someone or something that is incapable of functioning normally
(as modifier): a basket-case economy
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with basket case
A person or thing too impaired to function. For example, The stress of moving twice in one year left her a basket case, or The republics of the former Soviet Union are economic basket cases. Originating in World War I for a soldier who had lost all four limbs in combat and consequently had to be carried in a litter (“basket”), this term was then transferred to an emotionally or mentally unstable person and later to anything that failed to function. [Slang; second half of 1900s]
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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