lunatic fringes

Noun

lunatic fringe (plural lunatic fringes)

1. (archaic, historical) A woman's hairstyle in which the hair is cut square across the forehead.
2. A minority political or social group espousing extreme, fanatical, or irrational views.
   • Among the wise and high-minded people who in self-respecting and genuine fashion strive earnestly for peace, there are the foolish fanatics always to be found in such a movement and always discrediting it — the men who form the lunatic fringe in all reform movements.1913, Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt — An Autobiography, ch. VII, page 211