nut house
5
9.9
- noun
- Slur
:
manicomio
- Don't get me wrong, I have the highest respect for real monasteries and monks, but that place was a nut house.
Examples
-
And I didn't like how they treated me in the nut house.
Fiction book (1997) -
"She also told me that you've been in and out of the nut house, which is where the two of you met."
Fiction book (1999) -
You will end up with three square meals, but it will be in prison if you are lucky or the nut house if you are not.
Blog text (30) -
Cara thought many things, frightening things, nasty things, things like "I told you he belongs in a nut house," but she did not say a word.
Fiction book (1991) -
After struggling with his mental health, he spent some time in the nut house to get the help he needed.
-
She often joked about her experiences in the nut house, where she found others who understood her.
-
The documentary explores life inside a nut house and the challenges faced by its residents.
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
The phrase is directly built from 'nut' (slang for a crazy person) + 'house' (a building), so a learner who knows both words can readily infer it means a place for mentally disturbed people. Although slangy and offensive, its meaning is compositionally transparent and follows a common compound logic found cross-linguistically.
Etymology
Nut house began as a simple image: nut was slang for a 'crazy person' and house meant a building where people stayed. So a nut house was literally a 'house for nuts' and came to mean a 'psychiatric hospital', but the phrase is rude and insulting today.