crackpot

plural crackpots

1. informalAn eccentric, crazy or foolish person.

   Time will tell whether he is a crackpot or a genius for promoting that sort of idea.

   3 more examples

   The Police Commissioner sat studying Frank the Flower for several minutes. Then he called the policeman who had arrested Frank. “You will have to lock this man up,” he said. “But treat him gently. He is a harmless crackpot.”

   1964, Jean Merrill, The Pushcart War

   No one plots like Gaston / Takes cheap shots like Gaston / Plans to persecute harmless crackpots like Gaston

   1991, “Gaston (Reprise)”, in Howard Ashman (lyrics), Beauty and the Beast

   In the early 1990s, Ms. Feilding realized that the only way to overcome the taboo of these drugs — and her reputation as a crackpot — was to start a scientific foundation to fund research projects that governments and universities would never consider.

   2025 June 12, Michael S. Rosenwald, “Amanda Feilding, Eccentric Countess Who Backed Psychedelic Meds, Dies at 82”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 12 Jun 2025

   Synonyms: crank, crazy, kook, live one, nut ball, nutbag, nutbar, nutcase

2. informalSomeone addicted to crack cocaine (i.e. a drug addict).

   Synonyms: crackhead, crack whore, addict, abuser, fiend, slave, wastoid

comparative more crackpot · superlative most crackpot

1. informalEccentric or impractical.

   a crackpot idea

   1 more example

   While all this was happening Mr. Dies on February 1, 1943, in a long speech on the floor of the House attacked thirty-nine named Government employees as 'irresponsible, unrepresentative, crackpot, radical bureaucrats' and affiliates of 'communist front organizations.'

   1946, Hugo Black, United States v. Lovett/Opinion of the Court

   Synonyms: eccentric, impractical

1. A small village in Grinton parish, Swaledale, North Yorkshire, England, previously in Richmondshire district (OS grid ref SD9796)