Word.ws English Dictionary

have a loose screw

have a loose screw is the alternative form of have a screw loose.

Meaning of have a screw loose

Verb

have a screw loose (third-person singular simple present has a screw loose, present participle having a screw loose, simple past and past participle had a screw loose)

  1. (slang) To be insane, irrational, or eccentric.
    • Richard, glorious in new livery, [...] went with his sad message, first to the church and then to the banqueting-hall in Albemarle Street. "Not any wedding?" said the head-waiter at the hotel. "I knew they was folks as would have a screw loose somewheres. [...]"1871 July – 1873 February, Anthony Trollope, “The Major”, in The Eustace Diamonds. A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1872, →OCLC, page 306, column 1

Forms of have a loose screw

third-person singular presenthas a loose screw
present participlehaving a loose screw
past participlehad a loose screw
pasthad a loose screw

Questions about have a loose screw

What is have a loose screw the alternative form of?
Have a loose screw is the alternative form of have a screw loose.

Words near have a loose screw in the dictionary

  1. have a jag on
  2. have a laugh
  3. have a lend of
  4. have a listen
  5. have a look
  6. have a loose screw
  7. have a lot of time
  8. have a mind of one's own
  9. have a mind to
  10. have a moment
  11. have a monk on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have a loose screw (page history and authors); have a screw loose (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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