nut job
35
8.8
- noun
- /nʌt dʒɑb/
- Slur
:
tarado
- I don't want to be around someone who's a nut job.
- call someone a nut job
- a real nut job
- a total nut job
So that of course is Copeland, the nut job grifter pastor.
- So that of course is Copeland, the nut job grifter pastor.
- Everybody knows that your rallies are rambling, nonsensical nut job affairs.
- And the times I'd seen him, he was just a nut job.
- It turns out Frank is just crazy about crazy women and Katie Sagal plays a nut job.
- Like the like you've got that nut job, you who ran the military.
- And now when nut jobs come along, we all have to pretend like it's real.
- I'm panicking about the little one trying to learn how to drive because she's the nut job, but it's it's going to be.
- But if I say Salman Rushdie got stabbed by this guy who's just a nut job, he's basically but it.
Examples
-
I would never go as far as to call him a nut job.
Blog text (17) -
I must come off like a complete nut job or something.
-
You deal with that nut job, not me.
-
Just some nut job that comes into the bar sometimes.
-
- We stay away from nut jobs.
-
No wonder we are in trouble with nut jobs like her in Congress!
Blog text (15) -
Yeah, well, she is a nut job, and I'm not going on any date.
-
So instead, we get nut jobs on both sides arguing nonsense, and no real solution is in sight.
Blog text (5) -
Gifford was attacked by a nut job who has no party affiliation.
Blog text (3) -
I don't want to be around someone who's a nut job.
Synonyms
309
7.5
A person who behaves in a silly or strange way
95
6.4
A man who acts very strangely or dangerously and may be mentally ill
52
8.6
A person who behaves very strangely and may be dangerous
51
6.2
A person who acts in a wild or reckless way
40
8.2
A person who has strange or unrealistic ideas
35
8.8
A person who behaves in a very strange or wild way
4
8.6
A person who acts in a silly or strange way
1
9.1
An insulting word for a person who acts very silly or strange
1
8.8
A person who acts in a way that seems crazy
A person who behaves in a very strange and unreasonable way that worries others
Surface Forms
Morphology
nut + job
The constituent 'nut' already carries the meaning 'crazy person', so a learner who knows that sense can partially infer the expression refers to a mentally unstable or eccentric person. However, 'job' does not compositionally contribute a predictable meaning here and the phrase is informal/slang, making the overall relation only partially transparent.
Etymology
The term nut job probably comes from old slang: nut meant a 'crazy person' and job was used to mean a 'difficult person'. So calling someone a nut job creates the image of a person who is very odd or unstable, which is why it means 'a crazy or eccentric person' today.