not right in the head
5
9.1
- idiom
- Offensive
:
loco
- You're not right in the head.
- not right in the head, Moraine said
Examples
-
He wasn't right in the head.
-
"The boy is not right in the head," Moraine said.
Fiction book (1992) -
Sometimes, there really are people in this world who are not right in the head.
Blog text (25) -
May-- maybe you're not right in the head.
-
He is not right in the head.
Academic text (2001) -
It's evident that he's not right in the head.
Blog text (32) -
Michael Keaton definitely gave you the sense that that guy wasn't right in the head.
Blog text (24) -
And if it is true, then he's not right in the head.
Blog text (6) -
YOU'RE NOT RIGHT IN THE HEAD.
-
You can see that he is not right in the head when he talks about conspiracy theories.
Synonyms
2
9.9
Very unwell in the mind and likely to act strangely
A little bit crazy and not thinking clearly
Antonyms
How Sane
119
3.2
798
1.0
- Offensive
5
9.1
- Vulgar
77
3.4
- Specialized
167
8.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'not' + 'right' + 'in the head' map fairly directly onto the idea that something is wrong with someone's mind, but the sense 'right' = 'mentally sound' is a metaphorical extension of the adjective rather than a literal meaning. Because the mental/sanity reading requires this figurative mapping (even though many languages use similar formulations and learners can often infer a problem with the mind), the relation is only partially predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Not right in the head comes from the idea that someone's head is not right, as if it is not working properly. So the phrase is used to say someone seems 'mentally unstable' or 'not thinking clearly'.