nut n.2
1. (orig. US, also nuts) an insane person.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | College Words (rev. edn) 336: We speak of a person whom we despise as being a nuts. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Psmith in the City (1993) 28: He’s a nut. I’m jolly glad I’m under old Waller now. | |
| ‘Life on Broadway’ in McClures Mag. Aug. 194/2: ‘You’re a nut for trustin’ any of them’. | |
| diary 13 Mar. 🌐 The nut jumped from his bed 3 onto the next & cut the man’s throat in 4 & went all the way down on top of the beds as far as 14, & slashed at every man’s throat with a razor. | |
| West Broadway 117: ‘Jim, you nut,’ I says, ‘'have a heart! Let Tom drive, please! Oh, Jim, you make me so nervous!’. | |
| Chicago May (1929) 114: When the money was thrown so recklessly on the table, I thought I had met a nut. | |
| ‘Cemetery Bait’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 529: He turns out to be a raving nut. | |
| Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 146: Doc Green’s bug-house. He’s a nut. | |
| On The Road (1972) 10: People in buses looked around to see the ‘overexcited nut’. | |
| Last Exit to Brooklyn 207: Harry was a nut, but that was what made him so valuable. | |
| Street Players 27: Your friend must be some kind of nut. | |
| Life and Times of Little Richard 20: I was the one at home that everybody thought was a nut. | |
| Homeboy 67: It’s good luck to help out nuts. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Goodoo Goodoo 131: I don’t know why but I quite fancy the little nut. | |
| Nature Girl 96: You sit in a rubber room with a bunch of other nuts. | |
| (con. 1973) Johnny Porno 56: Hastings continued walking. Kelly watched [...] ‘Fuckin’ nut,’ he said. |
2. (US campus) an unpopular student.
| Boston Globe Sun. Mag. 21 Dec. 7–8: The unpopular man is referred to as a ‘nut,’ a ‘dope’ and a ‘sad one.’. |
3. (orig. US) a fan, an enthusiast, an obsessive; usu. in defining comb., e.g. cricket nut, computer nut.
| in McClure’s Mag. Aug. 21/2: He’s a nut all right on the singin’ stuff... He’s a pretty good guy, even if he is crazy. | |
 | We Called It Music 213: Leeds was a drum nut; he had a complete set of them in his triplex apartment. | |
| Men from the Boys (1967) 94: Some guy in shorts and a knapsack, one of them health nuts. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Maclean’s (Toronto) Oct. 80: He was a hi-fi nut who made his own equipment, which he could have got from Philco for $200 cheaper, and he was into us for several hundred dollars. | |
| All Bull 213: Learning from my new-found colleagues that the ‘Old man’ was a religious nut did little for my confidence. | |
| Guardian G2 22 Sept. 11: Gun nuts apparently believe these toddlers would be OK today if they had been carrying guns. | |
| (con. 1960s-70s) Top Fellas 17/1: Sharps were nuts for Italian style. | |
| I, Fatty 129: From hating the idea, he’d become a movie nut. | |
| http://www.nightmare-magazine.com Dec. 🌐 So I all of a sudden discovered crime and mystery [...] and when I did I just became a nut for it. | |
| Sellout (2016) 117: Bicycles, skateboards, and Rollerblades are for health nuts and kids. | |
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 88: ‘Norm’s a right-wing nut’. |
4. (orig. US) a course of action, an obsession.
| Q&A 102: Now he’s after me. Maybe he’s on one of those death squad nuts. But I’m not going to sit still and get whacked out. |
5. (US Und.) a beggar who is insane, or poses as such.
| Sister of the Road (1975) 301: Beggars [...] may be further sub-divided into groups: a. Blinkey (blind) b. Deafey (deaf) c. Dummy (dumb) d. D & D (deaf and dumb) e. Army or wingey (armless) f. Peggy (legless) g. Crippy (paralyzed) h. Fritzy (epileptic) i. Nuts (feeble-minded or insane) j. Shaky (with pronounced tremors). |
In derivatives
insanity; stupidity.
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Gutted 61: At the traffic lights [...] I spotted an act of full-on nuttery in progress. |
In phrases
to be enthusiastic about or expert in.
| Hop-Heads 51: The old fellow is a nut on the idea he can cure a fiend. | |
| They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? in Four Novels (1983) 19: She’s a nut about these things [i.e. dance marathons]. | |
| Harder They Fall (1971) 30: He was kind of a nut on barber-shops. | |
| A-Team 2 (1984) 129: My deputy’s a nut about sports facts. |
to be obsessed with.
| in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 60: We heard word last night that Jack Johnson and George Little, his manager, had a nut on moving pictures and that the champion would not exert himself in trying to knock Ketchel out so that the moving pictures would be a harvest. |
Pertaining to madness or eccentricity, of people
In compounds
(US) a mentally unstable person.
| Sacred 196: ‘Maybe [...] we accepted too many things as truth at the beginning and we were wrong.’ ‘Like thinking Trevor was an okay guy and not a homicidal, incestuous nutbag?’ . | |
| Guardian Guide 29 May–4 June 31: Hold tight you nutbags. | |
| Angel of Montague Street (2004) 43: You did a lot of digging, looking for one missing nut bag. | |
| Crooked Little Vein 119: ‘This is how you treat your friends?’ ‘He’s a nutbag, Trix.’. | |
| ‘The Accident’ in Crimes in Southern Indiana [ebook] ‘Oh, I see, so you think I’m a recluse? A nut bag’. | |
| Guardian 3 Aug. 🌐 What the EDC ravers most recall are the ‘nutbags’ and ‘mentalists’ who flocked to Gatecrasher, the Sheffield club. |
see separate entries.
(US) a lunatic.
| National Lampoon (U.S.) Oct. 8: I thought the guy was a real nutbar until I followed his directions [OED]. | |
| Cocaine True 127: Man, there goes Nutbucket. She’s a real nut. | |
| Shagadelically Speaking 38: The president of the United States calls Dr. Evil a ‘nutbar’. | |
| Price You Pay 217: [S]he does not concur with your assessment regarding my being a nutbar. |
(US) a madman, an eccentric.
| Clockers 359: This kid sounds like a fucking nut-boy. |
(US) a lunatic.
| A-Team Storybook 20: He’s dealing with some counter-culture nutburgers. |
(US) a fool, a lunatic, an eccentric.
| Mandrake the Magician in Zanesville (OH) Signal 14 July 14/1: [cartoon caption] Since you prefer prize fighters, I’ve become one to please you, Carma. – She doesn’t need your flowers, nutcake! | |
| Babyhip 177: She wasn’t going to let a nutcake bug her . | |
| City on Hill 165: ‘He’s representing Michael Tarza.’ ‘That nutcake,’ Barry said. | |
| Patriot Game (1985) 78: I can outtalk any guy in Boston that’s got an all-night call-in show, along with all the nutcakes that call him up. |
see separate entries.
(orig. US) a psychiatrist.
| Prison Community (1940) 334/1: nut doctor, n. A psychiatrist. | |
| In For Life 270: All nut doctors are the same [...] They just want to know if you play with yourself. | |
| Viper 72: The law told me that the nut doc had given me a favourable report . | |
| Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 155: In the first interview the nut doctors knew / she was as freakish as a three-dollar bill. | |
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 273: The crazy one might be said to be a nutbrain or nuthead, to be nuts, nutsy, or even as nutty as a fruitcake; to belong in a nut college or nuthouse; to be in need of a treatment by a nut doctor or nutpick. | |
| Robbers (2001) 321: I’ve seen grown nut doctors sit there and cry. | |
| Decent Ride 298: I’m going to refer to you to Dr Mikel Christenson, who is an excellent psychotherapist [...] — A nut doctor? What good’s that gaunny fuckin well dae? |
(US) an eccentric.
| You Call It Sports 274: Well, there are nutfucks who still jog today. |
(orig. US) a fool, a simpleton; thus nutheaded adj.
| Knocking the Neighbors 165: A nutheaded Swozzie, who could get into Matteawan without Credentials, moved down the line of Distinguished Guests asking for Autographs. | |
| Bee (Earlington, KY) 12 may 4/2: Any nuthead could do that. | |
| Teen-Age Gangs 20: I just mentioned that old Nuthead there don’t know the time of day. | |
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 273: The crazy one might be said to be a nutbrain or nuthead. |
(Aus.) a psychiatric institution.
| (con. 1960s-70s) Top Fellas 11/2: Some sharpies were sweeties [...] a few were downright fit for the nut-hutch. |
(US) a lunatic or very eccentric person; also attrib.
| Newark Advocate (OH) 2 Nov. 2/5: "Jim Bishop Reports" (syndicated column) The commissioner [of the NYPD] asked 75 police departments around the world to send their slang phrases to him. Arm published the result in the police magazine Spring 3100. Here are some samples: [...] PSYCHOTIC. Nut job. In orbit. Mooner. | |
| Q&A 71: We get a squeal that a nut-job has got a knife. | |
| After Hours 160: Pachanga — another nut-job. | |
| Tucker and Co 14: Why do you reckon nutjobs like Gripper carry on like they do? | |
| Talk Radio (1989) 32: Judy thinks your show is for nut jobs and psychos. | |
| Guardian Rev. 13 Aug. 18: A child-menacing nutjob. | |
| Portable Promised Land (ms.) 281: I can not be expected to be around a real live nutjob like that even one more time. | |
| Peepshow [ebook] Just when I think she can’t be any more of a nut-job she goes and surprises me. | |
| ‘The Dickensian Aspect’ Wire ser. 5 ep. 6 [TV script] Some nut job that’s killing homeless guys. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | ‘Fjord of Killary’ in New Yorker 24 Jan. 🌐 They were all nut jobs. [...] They suffer all manner of delusions, paranoia, warped fantasies. | |
| Independent (London) 4 Sept. 23/1: A nasty outfit comprised of right-wing nut-jobs. | |
| ‘Dread Fellow Churls’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] This nut job is dangerous, Maquina. | |
| ‘Chasing Atlantis’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] New Atlantic has all the features associated with your garden variety nut job cult. | |
| Hard Bounce [ebook] ‘[I]f a nutjob like me can make my way in, anybody can’. | |
| in Guardian 30 June 🌐 [Boris Johnson] is a left leaning nut job who favours high levels of immigration into a country with a shortage of homes. | |
| Good Girl Stripped Bare 249: A charming, eccentric blowhard from Brisbane [...] He’s backstabbed [and] the whispers are vicious: ‘nut-job,’ ‘crazy’ and ‘dangerous’. | |
| Squeeze Me 271: ‘How’d you track down this nut job?’. | |
| Orphan Road 72: [T]he nut jobs in this place would probably cheer Swain on as he wrestled Tremont to the ground. |
an insane, eccentric person.
| Layer Cake 24: The geezer’s a total fuckin nut-nut. | |
| ft.com 19 Nov. 🌐 [headline] Princess Nut Nut or avenging angel? / Why I can’t get Carrie Symonds figured out. |
see separate entries.
1. (US black) an eccentric or mad person.
| Straight Outta Compton 12: Yolanda wheeled back around and cheesed, playing the nut roll. |
2. (N.Z. prison) a homosexual.
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 127/1: nut roll n. a homosexual. |
(US) a state of madness, psychosis.
| In the Life 9: I’m not for the nut wagon, nothing psycho about me. [Ibid.] 12: Bang! sudden-like, I nearly hop on the nut train. Well, I began to be afraid. |
Pertaining to madness or eccentricity, of institutions
In compounds
(US prison) the prison insane ward.
| Und. Speaks n.p.: Nut alley, prison insane ward. |
a psychiatric institution.
| (con. early 1950s) L.A. Confidential 293: Now he’s doing ninety days’ observation at the Camarillo nut bin. | |
| (con. 1964–8) Cold Six Thousand 470: Payoffs/bribes/slush funds/dope cures/nut bins/car wrecks. | |
| (con. 1962) Enchanters 250: He’s in jail [...] That, or the nut bin. |
(US) a psychiatric institution.
| Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 17: Bucky had let a white boy beat him in the nutbox. |
(US) a lunatic asylum/psychiatric institution.
| Kansas U. Qly 90: nut college: lunatic asylum. — Chicago. | |
| Salt Lake Herald (UT) 19 Oct. 5/1: A few more of the nickel movement [i.e. cheap whisky] and James to the nut college where the crackers [sic] will do for him. | |
| Prison Gates Ajar 9: I [...] played ‘daffy’ (insane) and was landed in a ‘nut college’ (insane asylum). | |
| Knocking the Neighbors 185: Either build an Asylum in every Block or else liberate the present Inmates of all the Nut-Colleges. | |
| Warren Sheaf (Marshall Co., MN) 7 July 10/2: Insanity is a positive term [...] in a nut college. | |
| Liberal Democrat (KN) 9 Mar. 5/2: The smart men who lecture on wiasdom are, maybe, the ones who ought to be caged in ‘nut colleges’. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
| Hy Lit’s Unbelievable Dict. of Hip Words 51: nut college – The funny farm. | |
| Dict. of Invective (1991) 273: The crazy one might [...] belong in a nut college or nuthouse. |
(Aus./US) a psychiatric institution.
| Tales of the Ex-Tanks 129: His failure to land the Melancholy Dane in a nut factory at the wind-up of the play. | |
| Chillicothe (MO) Constitution 10 May 4/3: ‘He says he’d rather go to the electric gallows than to an insane asylum.’ ‘They call them nut factories don’t they, Miss Chunky?’. | |
| Maison De Shine 96: They ain’t no place but the nut factory for her. | |
| Sport (Adelaide) 6 Jan. 8/4: There is another candidate for the Nut Factory. Bill S. has taken on work. | |
| Two and Three 18 Jan. [synd. col.] It looks more like a nut factory and acts like a comic academy. | |
| ‘Hobo Lingo’ in AS I:12 652: Nut factory—hospital for insane. | |
| Man’s Grim Justice 154: They were not all there, They should have been in the ‘nut factory’. | |
| [song title] Nut Factory Blues. | |
| Living Rough 243: We must be in some nut factory [...] All the people here are nuts. | |
| Generation of Vipers 92: It will very likely cause you to cork off screaming to the nut factory. | |
| Argus (Melbourne) 28 Sept. 3/3: My small nephew [...] said he thought someone was ‘bughouse’ [...] ‘That means he belongs in a nut factory’. | |
| Lily on the Dustbin 51: A psychiatric hospital is a ‘shrink klink’, ‘giggle bin’, ‘nut factory’ or ‘peanut factory’. |
(US) a psychiatric institution.
| Boston Globe Sun. Mag. 21 Dec. 7–8: In addition [at Princeton] there are the ‘nutfarm,’ one who has extraordinary eccentricities. | |
| Last Tycoon 12: Some mystic... spouting tripe that’d land him on a nut-farm anywhere outside of California. |
(US) a psychiatric institution.
| News & Courier (Charleston, SC) 14 Apr. 18/2: If they nail me [...] it’ll sure be me for a purple ticket to the nut foundry. | |
| Golden West Boys 302: I’m plumb locoed an’ b’long into a padded cell up to the nut- foundry! | |
| Flynn’s mag. 4 June n.p.: Settled in the boob house, the nut foundry [DU]. | |
| in et al. Tough Guys (1993) 134: So now he’s trying to sock me in the nut foundry! [HDAS]. |
(orig. US) a psychiatric institution.
| Amer. Thes. Sl. | |
| Commissioner 337: Is this a nuthatch or ain’t it? | |
| Garden of Sand (1981) 425: You better get ahold of yourself or you’re going to wake up and find yourself in a nut-hatch one day. | |
| Stand (1990) 717: The sheriff had sent him away to the nuthatch. | |
| It (1987) 430: I just don’t want to be involved in something that will land me in the nuthatch. |
see nut house n. (2)
see separate entry.
a psychiatric institution.
| story title at www.angelfire.com Vacations From the Nut Hut: Another Insanity Story. A Small Bit of Madness by SpamWarrior. |
(US) a psychiatric institution.
| in Sweet Daddy 95: You’ll be sending me to the nut place – what’s it – yeah, the lunatic asylum. |
1. (US) a psychiatric unit.
| A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 6: [caption] Nut Ward. | |
| ‘Prison Dict.’ in AS VIII:3 (1933) 30/1: NUT WARD. Insanity ward of the prison hospital. | |
| (con. 1944) Gallery (1948) 29: Watch that talk, [...] First thing you know, you’ll be in the nut ward of the Forty-fifth with a Messiah complex. | |
| letter 30 Nov. in Charters II (1999) 86: I am vast endless nakedheaded giant cloud making no sense even to members of the nut ward. | |
| Reinhart in Love (1963) 2: He had at last got free of the nut ward. | |
| Cinderella Liberty 43: Would you like to visit our nut ward? | |
| (con. 1968) Citadel (1989) 333: The corpsman [...] whispered to each other that I should be topside — on the nut ward. |
2. attrib. use of sense 1.
| From Here to Eternity (1998) 151: You’re nutward material, Angelo, thats what you are. |
(US prison) the psychiatric wing.
| (con. 1998–2000) You Got Nothing Coming 5: Macaroni and cheese must signify Happy Hour here on the nut wing of the Las Vegas county jail. |
In phrases
(US campus) a course in abnormal psychology.
| What’s The Good Word? 300: More recent examples [of nicknames for courses] are astronomy’s ‘Stars for Studs,’ art’s ‘Nudes for Dudes,’ psychology’s ‘Nuts and Sluts,’ European civilization’s ‘Plato to NATO,’ anthropology’s ‘Monkeys to Junkies,’ and comparative religion’s ‘Gods for Clods’. | |
| Reel-Time 🌐 Why did I waste the spring term of my sophomore year playing backgammon [...] Why didn’t I take Abnormal Psychology, aka ‘Nuts and Sluts?’. |
being insane, or posing as such.
| Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 17: The best thing for me to do was cop out on the nut. |