a bit tetched
- idiom
- Slang
:
un poco loco
- Everyone in the village thought old Mr. Jenkins was a bit tetched after he painted his house purple.
Examples
-
The way she talks to her plants makes me think she's a bit tetched.
-
You have to be a bit tetched to swim in the river during winter, if you ask me.
-
He's always been a bit tetched in his ideas.
-
I think she's just a bit tetched when she talks to her plants.
-
Everyone in the village thought old Mr. Jenkins was a bit tetched after he painted his house purple.
-
The way she talks to her plants makes me think she's a bit tetched in a harmless way.
-
You have to be a bit tetched to swim in the river during winter, if you ask me.
Synonyms
55
7.2
Being a little crazy in a funny or strange way
6
8.4
Slightly strange in the way a person thinks or behaves
3
9.3
Strange and amusing in how a person or thing looks and acts
1
9.0
Very strange and silly in a way that seems crazy
1
8.6
Slightly silly and odd in a playful way
1
8.1
Acting strange or not thinking clearly
A little strange in a kind, harmless way
A little strange and silly
Acting silly and playful in a slightly strange but friendly way
A little bit crazy and not thinking clearly
Acting or feeling very strange
Antonyms
How Eccentric
Surface Forms
Morphology
a + bit + tetched
Although the modifier 'a bit' transparently marks 'slightly', the core lexical item 'tetched' is dialectal/rare and not transparently related to any clear literal meaning a B1 learner would know; its sense ‘slightly crazy’ cannot be predicted from the parts. Because the key meaning depends on an idiosyncratic word rather than compositional combination, the expression is opaque to learners who have not previously encountered it.
Etymology
A bit tetched probably comes from the older word touched, which people used when someone seemed slightly odd, as if they had been gently 'touched' on the head. That small picture of a light touch helps explain why the phrase means 'a little crazy or eccentric' today.