few cards shy of a full deck
- idiom
- Slur
:
faltarle un tornillo
- Don't be rude; he's just a few cards shy of a full deck.
Examples
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After he tried to start his car with a banana, it was clear he was few cards shy of a full deck.
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When he insisted that aliens were living in his attic, I started to think he was few cards shy of a full deck.
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People say her brother's few cards shy of a full deck, but he's actually just very eccentric.
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Some days I wonder if my boss is few cards shy of a full deck.
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My friend is few cards shy of a full deck.
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Some people believe that my neighbor is few cards shy of a full deck because of his strange habits.
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It's best to ignore her comments; she's obviously few cards shy of a full deck.
Synonyms
138
8.1
Not smart or quick to understand
14
5.7
A person who is not mentally well and often acts strangely
1
9.9
A person who is not very quick to understand things
Not very quick to understand things
Antonyms
How Sane
Surface Forms
Morphology
few + cards + shy + of + a + full + deck
The phrase literally describes a deck that is missing a few cards, which conveys a general sense of being incomplete or lacking. However, mapping that physical image onto a person’s mental capacity (i.e. ‘not very intelligent’ or ‘slightly unstable’) is an idiomatic, culture-specific metaphor that a B1 learner who only knows the constituents would not reliably infer.
Etymology
Few cards shy of a full deck may come from the picture of a deck of playing cards that is missing a few cards and so is not a complete deck. People used this image to say someone's mind is 'not quite complete' or a little 'off', so the phrase means 'not very intelligent' or 'slightly mentally unstable'.