screwy
adj/ˈskɹuː.i/
Etymology From screw + -y. 1820, original meaning “tipsy, slightly drunk”; meaning “crazy, ridiculous” first recorded 1887.
1
Informal Crazy; silly; ridiculous
- That's a screwy idea; I am not going to fly all the way to Antarctica just to see a penguin!
- Pretend it never happened. The insurance business is completely screwy now. You know they’ve reintroduced the death penalty for insurance company directors?1992, Douglas Adams, chapter 13, in Mostly Harmless (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), page 118:
1 more example
- Now, you don't actually have to have another printer in order to add another printer. This might sound a bit screwy on my part, but it is true.2005, Rickford Grant, Linux Made Easy: The Official Guide to Xandros 3 for Everyday Users, San Francisco: No Starch Press, →ISBN, page 155:
- "A tipsy man," said Spearman, "is generally noisy ; and I confess I was screwy on Wednesday."1868, Memorials of a theological college., London: Houlston & Wright, page 9:
- Screwy [skroo'i], adj. mean ; stingy ; parsimonious. Alto, slightly intoxicated.[1877, Edward Peacock, A glossary of words used in the wapentakes of Manley and Corringham, London: Trubner & Co., page 120, English Dialect Society:
3
Archaic Exacting; extortionate; close.
4
Archaic Worthless.
- I saw my hearty out of the yard, with his pink peeping out of his Macintosh, on his screwy old black horse, and I heard from my fair waiter that he had been vaunting that he would lick us all into fits.1840 March 23, Hal of the West, “Brilliant run with the Puckeridge hounds”, in The Sporting Magazine, volume XX, number 119, page 383:
- Related terms
- have a screw loose, screwball, screw up