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Glite Dictionary
to spaz out

to spaz out

4 9.9
To suddenly act very upset or nervous and lose control
  • phrasal verb
  • /spæz aʊt/
  • Slur
: [insulto ofensivo por discapacidad motora]
  • Don't spaz out, man.
  • I just spazzed out

And we should not have that social guilty feeling to constantly spaz out and answer our phone.

Examples

  • Don't spaz out when you hear the news; just take a deep breath and think it through.

  • Even if she is handling the stress poorly and spazzing out, at least she's self-aware.

    Blog text (4)

  • And we should not have that social guilty feeling to constantly spaz out and answer our phone.

    Meet Kevin

  • So I always know when he is ready to spaz out because I don't see him as much the morning of.

  • Don't spaz out.

    Sixteen Candles (1984)

  • I didn't want to have to tell you this 'cause I know you're gonna spaz out, but the last train for Ronkonkoma left an hour ago.

    200 Cigarettes (1999)

  • She tends to spaz out whenever she gets too much stress at work.

  • I tried to calm him down, but he just kept spazzing out over the problem.

Synonyms

to freak out
vsto spaz out
  • Informal
734 6.8

To become very upset or afraid suddenly and lose control

is broader, including excitement or anger, not only sudden fear
to wig out
vsto spaz out
  • Informal
19 9.2

React with strong fear or excitement and lose control

is an exaggerated, frantic loss of control across anger fear or excitement
to trip out
vsto spaz out
  • Informal
13 8.6

Become very upset or excited and act confused suddenly

is a frantic, exaggerated loss of control rather than mere distraction
to bug-out
vsto spaz out
  • Slang
8 8.8

To react suddenly with fear and lose control

is wider and can include exaggerated excitement or anger as well
to get into a tizz
vsto spaz out
  • UK
1 9.6

To become very worried or upset about small things

is a much stronger, frantic loss of control across many emotions

Antonyms

to calm
∞ 1.0

Make a person or animal less upset

How Agitated

to lose it
  • Informal
326 7.5
to spaz out
  • Slur
4 9.9
to freak out
  • Informal
734 6.8
to upset
273 1.0

Surface Forms

spaz out infinitive
spazzed out past
spazzed out past participle
spazzing out present participle
spazzes out third person singular

Morphology

spaz + out

Given the provided constituent meanings, 'spaz' (to lose control) plus the particle 'out' (indicating movement into or full entry of a state) composes predictably to mean 'to lose control or react frantically.' The structure parallels transparent verb+out patterns like 'freak out,' so a learner who knows both words would likely infer this meaning, though the term is informal/slang and can be offensive in some varieties.

Etymology

Spaz out comes from the older word spaz, which described sudden, jerky body movements and made people picture someone moving wildly. So spaz out now means 'to lose control' or act in a very excited, frantic way, but this word can be rude or hurtful to people with disabilities, so be careful using it.