freak v.3
1. to lose psychological control, whether enjoyably or otherwise, as the result of drugs, usu. hallucinogens; usu. as freaking.
![]() | Big Bounce 92: ‘[S]itting around all day while everybody got stoned. By five o’clock they’d be freaked out of their minds’. | |
![]() | Underground Dict. (1972). | |
![]() | Campus Sl. Apr. 4: freak – to act out of control. | |
![]() | 145th Street 127: He had paid twenty dollars for the hit and Sweet Jimmy’s stuff was correct but now he was freaking because of the guy watching him. | ‘A Story in Three Parts’ in|
![]() | Rubdown [ebook] I’m not a freak, I just like to freak. | |
![]() | Rough Riders 25: She half naked in that robe [...] Kincaid went off, man. The Indian freaked. | |
![]() | Rules of Revelation 55: ‘Jesus Christ,’ Natalie said. ‘He is going to fucking freak’. |
2. (also freak one’s mind) to worry someone, to disturb, to cause severe anxiety (the extent of the disturbance varies totally as to context) (cf. freak out v. (2)).
![]() | Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 94: You freak me grandpa. | |
![]() | Hall of Mirrors (1987) 225: ‘No, no,’ the girl said. ‘It’ll freak him.’. | |
![]() | Puberty Blues 59: It freaked me and I ran outside. | |
![]() | Campus Sl. Fall 3: freak my mind – have a shocking, puzzling, different mental experience: ‘Talking to that man really freaked my mind’. | |
![]() | Keepers of Truth 146: Pete turned his head and listened to the cries. He said, ‘That always freaked me, them animals.’. |
3. to worry, to be worried, to be severely anxious.
![]() | Serial 28: Martha was particularly freaked when she learned [...] that Harvey was now involved with Carol. [Ibid.] 73: Kate and Harvey would have freaked if they knew she was hitching. | |
![]() | Doing Time 158: A lot of people thought I was being cold, but that wasn’t true. I was freaked. | |
![]() | Campus Sl. Apr. 4: freak – act excessively nervous. | |
![]() | (con. 1964-65) Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 133: She freaked but was hooked on the life. | |
![]() | Guardian G2 24 Aug. 14: Should we be freaked by these possibly guileless images? | |
![]() | Guardian G2 23 Sept. 12: I [...] freaked myself sick with apprehension. | |
![]() | Turning (2005) 94: Your parents know you’re here? Yeah. They’re freaking. | ‘Small Mercies’ in|
![]() | (con. 1980s) Skagboys 448: Molly’s freaked by it [i.e. an anecdote] and Tom chivalrously attempts to distract her. |
4. (also freak on) to act in an emotional, melodramatic manner; thus freaked adj., emotionally overwhelmed.
![]() | Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 44: They’ll really freak. | |
![]() | (con. 1960s) Wanderers 197: The regulars were [...] shrieking and freaking like a strung-out Greek chorus. | |
![]() | Runnin’ Down Some Lines 175: I freaked! Started runnin’ through the projects, yellin’, ‘Pigs after me!’. | |
![]() | (con. 1950s–60s) in Little Legs 32: They just freak. | |
![]() | Kill Your Darlings 288: Poor Dad. No wonder he was freaked. | |
![]() | Destination: Morgue! (2004) 352: He humps homos. [...] The fruitcake Freddies freak. | ‘Jungletown Jihad’ in|
![]() | Shooter 52: RE: You liked shooting? CP: Yeah. It was okay. I wasn’t freaking on it or anything, but I did like it. | |
![]() | Alphaville (2011) 336: ‘Fuck you! I’ve killed people for less!’ ‘Don’t fucking freak, yo, I’ll get you the rest [of the money]’. | |
![]() | OG Dad 5: I was shooting Mexican tar [...] freaking when the nurse banged on the door and told me the baby was coming. |
5. (US gay) to be uninhibited, esp. at a party.
![]() | Queens’ Vernacular 85: freak [...] 4. to be delightfully uninhibited; to have an uproarious time at a party. |
6. (US black) to perform.
![]() | Source July 40: The way we write we leave it open so we could freak it a different way next time. | |
![]() | A2Z 37/2: They was freakin’ the beats and movin’ the house. | et al.|
![]() | Rakim Told Me 163: ‘[F]ive intense minutes of pure, unadulterated braggadocio, with an incredible Marley-freaked James Brown loop’. |
In compounds
(US teen) a state of extreme tension.
![]() | 🌐 Last night I managed to turn what should have been a perfectly lovely evening with beer and pool into a freak attack. Well nobody knew I had a freak attack except me. | Blog Archive 19 Sept.