Word.ws English Dictionary

off the beam

off the beam prepositional phrase: crazy; insane.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (slang) Crazy; insane.
    • “They all thought I was off the beam.” He tapped his temple with a long, shaking finger. “But they come around.”2012, Matthew P. Mayo, Sourdoughs, Claim Jumpers & Dry Gulchers, page 163

Questions about off the beam

What does off the beam mean?
Off the beam means crazy; insane.
What part of speech is off the beam?
Off the beam is a prepositional phrase.

Words near off the beam in the dictionary

  1. off target
  2. off the air
  3. off the back
  4. off the back foot
  5. off the bat
  6. off the beam
  7. off the beaten path
  8. off the beaten track
  9. off the boil
  10. off the books
  11. off the chain

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: off the beam (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-off the beam.wav.

Cite this entry: “off the beam.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/off_the_beam. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.