to lose one's cookies
1
9.9
- idiom
- /luːz wʌnz ˈkʊkiz/
- Informal
:
perder los estribos
- Seeing her friend in tears made her lose her cookies as she felt overwhelmed with emotion.
Examples
-
Then of course, needless to say, everybody just lost their cookies.
-
When she heard the unexpected news, she truly felt like she would lose her cookies.
-
After the sudden accident, he began to lose his cookies with panic and anxiety.
Synonyms
289
7.5
Suddenly stop controlling your feelings and become very angry or upset
1
6.4
To become very upset and unable to think clearly
1
6.7
Become very anxious, confused, or upset and act in a way that does not make sense
To react suddenly with fear and lose control
To get very confused and unable to think clearly
To suddenly become very angry or upset in a way you cannot control
To start behaving in a strange and out of control way
Antonyms
How Upset
272
2.3
- Informal
1
9.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
lose + one's + cookies
The literal constituents ('lose' + 'one's' + 'cookies') would suggest misplacing baked goods, which does not transparently yield the meaning 'become very upset or frightened.' This is an informal idiomatic/slang use (not a regular compositional pattern like 'lose one's cool'), so a B1 learner who knows the words would not reliably predict the intended meaning.
Etymology
Lose one's cookies probably comes from the image of cookies in your stomach falling out when someone 'throws up'. Because people often feel sick or out of control when very scared or upset, the phrase came to mean 'to become very upset or frightened'.