Word.ws English Dictionary

out-of-whack

out-of-whack is the alternative form of out of whack.

Meaning of out of whack

Adjective

out of whack (comparative more out of whack, superlative most out of whack)

  1. (colloquial, idiomatic) Wrong, broken; specifically
    • In its hearty directness, “Winner” suggests that being mad as hell at a system that’s out of whack is as American as Hollywood itself.2024 September 11, Richard Brody, ““Winner” Takes Political Comedy Seriously”, in The New Yorker
  2. (colloquial, idiomatic) Not in proper balance; unbalanced.
    • Our priorities have gotten out of whack.
  3. (colloquial, idiomatic) Not in proper alignment.
    • The floor is so out of whack that the door hits it when opened.
  4. (colloquial, idiomatic) Not working or operating properly.
    • My banged-up left knee is out of whack.

Questions about out-of-whack

What is out-of-whack the alternative form of?
Out-of-whack is the alternative form of out of whack.

Words near out-of-whack in the dictionary

  1. out-of-towner
  2. out-of-towners
  3. out-of-townish
  4. out-of-tree
  5. out-of-universe
  6. out-of-whack
  7. out-of-work
  8. out-paramour
  9. out-paramour the Turk
  10. out-paramoured
  11. out-paramoured the Turk

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: out-of-whack (page history and authors); out of whack (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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Cite this entry: “out-of-whack.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/out-of-whack. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.