Word.ws English Dictionary

have a screw loose

have a screw loose verb: to be insane, irrational, or eccentric.

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
    • "You know he really has got a screw loose in his head somewheres, an' there ain't any one but what says he's the town fool, all right."1916, Eleanor H. Porter, chapter 22, in Just David

have a screw loose meaning in Tamil

have a screw loose in Tamil

to be insane, irrational, or eccentric
நட்டு கழன்றிரு naṭṭu kaḻaṉṟiru

Forms of have a screw loose

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

Questions about have a screw loose

What does have a screw loose mean?
Have a screw loose means to be insane, irrational, or eccentric.
What is have a screw loose in Tamil?
Have a screw loose in Tamil is நட்டு கழன்றிரு (naṭṭu kaḻaṉṟiru). See Have a screw loose meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is have a screw loose?
Have a screw loose is a verb.
What is the past tense of have a screw loose?
The past tense of have a screw loose is had a screw loose.

Words near have a screw loose in the dictionary

  1. have a quiet word
  2. have a rough time of it
  3. have a run for it
  4. have a safe trip home
  5. have a say
  6. have a screw loose
  7. have a seat
  8. have a shit
  9. have a short memory
  10. have a sixpenny bit up one's backside
  11. have a snootful

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-have a screw loose.ogg.

Cite this entry: “have a screw loose.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/have_a_screw_loose. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.