freak-out n.
1. any unpleasant experience caused by drug use, esp. with LSD.
Esquire July 44–45: freakout—a bad LSD experience. | ||
Burden of Proof 150: They want pot. They need acid. They’re proud of taking a trip even if it’s a freakout. | ||
Rolling Stone 22 Sept. 57: The onstage freak-out brought on by dope and who knows what else. | ||
Experience 153: He experimented [...] with LSD. To me he seemed to be on the verge of total freakout for several hours. |
2. anxiety, ranging from twinges of fear to a full nervous breakdown, varying as to context.
Proud Highway (1997) 637: This caused a general freak-out among local merchants who fear for the tourist trade. | letter 28 Aug. in||
Blue Movie (1974) 218: The instant Angela went into her freak-out, Fred the First had summoned the company physician. | ||
Misery (1988) 212: He was edging towards a state of terminal freak-out. | ||
Trainspotting 158: Sensin a freak oot, he sortay lets the lassie go. | ||
Kill Your Darlings 41: Ned [...] who, after some horrific mid-life freak-out, now lived a tranquil, and probably tranquillized, life as a handyman. | ||
Rough Trade [ebook] [H]e didn’t know whether to have himself a good old-fashioned freak out. |
3. a gathering of young people, esp. hippies, to enjoy music and take drugs together.
Proud Highway (1997) 607: I should be back in San Francisco for the summer freak-out by sometime in June. | letter 21 Mar. in||
Kings Road 98: We had the wildest freak-out last night. | ||
Powder 27: The Grams were enjoying the sort of bacchanalian freakout usually the preserve of mushied-up drongos invading Stonehenge for the Solstice. |
4. an orgy.
Mr Jive-Ass Nigger 148: [I]f a chick wants a workout, I mean a freakout, that’s where they go. These Greeks work in teams, man. They fuck the chick between the toes, in the nose, and shit like that. | ||
‘Groupie Gloss.’ on | Groupies [album] Freak scene: sexual orgy.||
Chili 41: It was scheduled to be a freak out. We were all going to get buck naked and fuck ourselves into bad health. |
5. an explosion of temper.
Miseducation of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (2004) 19: So the old pair have a major freak out, and we’re talking major. |
6. (Aus.) any notably bizarre event, e.g. a black mass.
Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] What a fuckin freak-out. [...] I’d have finished tied up on the altar with the May Queen as an offering to Zamzak. |