Off your rocker

Suggest a Correction

Meaning

Completely crazy or out of touch, unmoored from sense.

Origin

From early 20th-century America, possibly tied to rocking chairs; 'off your rocker' meant losing balance, slang by the 1920s for mental tilt. A 1925 'New York Times' piece uses it for a raving fool, echoing asylum tales of patients rocking obsessively. It reflects a folksy era of porches and nutty neighbors, growing into a zippy idiom of unhinged antics.

Variants

  • Off the rocker

Usage Examples

  • He's off his rocker, shouting at the moon!
  • She went off her rocker when the cake collapsed.
  • Planning that? You're off your rocker!

Browse More

A to Z More O phrases