loony bin
18
9.9
- noun
- /ˈluːni bɪn/
- Slur
:
manicomio
- After only a week of observation, my mother has been released from the loony bin.
- go to the loony bin
- belong in the loony bin
- time in a loony bin
Examples
-
I committed myself to the Scripps Memorial Hospital, a loony bin.
-
They took her to the loony bin where she could receive the help she needed.
-
You call one year in the loony bin nothing?
-
We'll go to the loony bin together.
-
I want this loony bin closed down.
-
You sure we're not in a loony bin?
-
I would like to speak to that woman who got back from the loony bin.
-
When everyone told me not to hire the guy fresh out of the loony bin, I ignored them.
-
I was incarcerated three months in the loony bin.
-
We call it the nuthouse or loony bin to show we have a sense of humor about it.
Synonyms
26
8.0
A very noisy, chaotic place often used to describe a mental hospital or busy shop
13
9.9
A rude informal word for a hospital for people with mental illness
4
9.2
A noisy place where many people shout and act in a confused way
1
9.9
A hospital where people with mental illness lived and got treatment in the past
How Formal
19
3.0
- Archaic
38
2.8
- Slur
18
9.9
- Slur
5
9.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
loony + bin
The adjective 'loony' clearly denotes mentally unsound people and 'bin' evokes a container/place, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer this is a slang, derogatory label for a place holding 'loony' people (i.e. a mental hospital). The mapping from a literal container to an institutional place is metaphorical and informal, so the precise institutional sense and connotations require some cultural/pragmatic knowledge and are not fully predictable.
Etymology
Loony bin may come from the word loony, once linked to the 'moon' and the old idea that the moon could make people act strangely, and bin, a simple word for a container or place. The picture of a 'place' holding people thought to be crazy explains why it came to mean 'mental hospital'.