off one's dot
- idiom
- Archaic
:
loco
- She’s been acting off her dot ever since she returned from vacation.
Examples
-
After hearing his bizarre plan, I thought he must be off his dot.
-
He's acting off his dot today!
-
Some people claim he’s always off his dot, but I find him charmingly eccentric.
-
Why is she so off her dot lately?
-
After making that odd remark, I realized he was off his dot.
-
She’s definitely off her dot; she wore mismatched shoes to the meeting.
-
His strange ideas about aliens make it clear he's a bit off his dot.
Synonyms
7
8.0
Strange and often funny in a surprising way
7
7.5
Not straight or level and a little strange
2
8.5
Someone who behaves in a slightly strange or silly way
1
9.9
Acting in a strange, confused way and not thinking clearly
Acting in a very strange and not sensible way
To behave in a very strange and unreasonable way
Feeling confused and out of control after drinking or when very upset
A little strange in a kind, harmless way
Antonyms
How Normal
Surface Forms
Morphology
off + one's + dot
Although 'off' can signal abnormality, the element 'one's dot' uses 'dot' idiomatically (related to 'dotty' = slightly mad) rather than its literal sense, so the overall meaning 'not acting normally' cannot be predicted from the literal parts. This is a rare/dialectal idiom and the semantic link to 'mind/sanity' is not transparent or cross-linguistically obvious for a B1 learner.
Etymology
Off one's dot may come from the picture of a small dot or mark that stands for your mind. One popular story says that if your dot is 'off'—as if it has fallen away—you are not acting normally, so the phrase means 'behaving in a strange or slightly crazy way'.