go postal

post·al

[pohs-tl]
adjective
1.
of or pertaining to the post office or mail service: postal delivery; postal employees.
noun
2.
Informal. postal card.
3.
go postal, Slang. to lose control or go crazy, especially in a violent way.

Origin:
1835–45; post3 + -al1; def. 2 in reference to incidents of violence among postal workers in the early 1990s

post·al·ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source Link To go postal
Collins
World English Dictionary
postal (ˈpəʊstəl) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
adj
of or relating to a Post Office or to the mail-delivery service
 
'postally
 
adv

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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00:10
Go postal is always a great word to know.
So is quincunx. Does it mean:
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

postal
"pertaining to the mail system," 1843, on model of Fr. postale (1836), from post (3). Noun meaning "state of irrational and violent anger" (usually in phrase going postal) attested by 1997, in ref. to a cluster of news-making workplace shootings in U.S. by what were commonly
described as "disgruntled postal workers" (the cliche itself, though not the phrase, goes back to at least 1994).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

go postal definition


  1. in.
    to become wild; to go berserk. : He made me so mad I thought I would go postal.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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