haywire
Use Haywire in a sentence
adjective Informal.
2.
in disorder: The town is haywire because of the bus strike.
3.
out of control; disordered; crazy: The car went haywire. He's been haywire since he got the bad news.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To haywire
Collins
World English Dictionary
haywire (ˈheɪˌwaɪə) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —adj | |
| 1. | (of things) not functioning properly; disorganized (esp in the phrase go haywire) |
| 2. | (of people) erratic or crazy |
| [C20: alluding to the disorderly tangle of wire removed from bales of hay] | |
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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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
00:10
Haywire
is always a great word to know.
So is lollapalooza. Does it mean:
| an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance. |
| a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes. |
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
haywire
"poorly equipped, makeshift," 1905, Amer.Eng., lit. "soft wire for binding bales of hay," from hay + wire. The extended sense being of something only held together with this, particularly said to be from use in New England lumber camps for jerry-rigging and makeshift purposes, so that haywire outfit
became the term for a logging camp chronically ill-equipped and short on suplies. Its springy, uncontrollable quality led to the sense in go haywire (1929).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary
haywire definition[ˈhewɑɪr]
|
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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American Heritage
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Example sentences
Property prices have gone haywire all around the world.
We left off a few highly popular artificial life forms, and some short-circuited readers went haywire.
During the same period crude oil prices went haywire, speculators have become the dominant players in the crude oil market.
It was so sudden and profound that planetary chemical cycles went haywire for the next several million years.
Idioms & Phrases
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