freak out

plural freak outs

1. datedslangA negative or unpleasant experience with LSD or another psychedelic drug.

   Antonyms: bummer, bum trip

present singular third person freaks out · participle present freaking out · participle past freaked out · past freaked out

1. informalintransitiveTo react with extreme anger or fear, to the extent that one loses one's composure or behaves irrationally.

   When Peter saw the nail poking up through his foot, he freaked out and started hyperventilating.

   1 more example

   Jimmy'll come in off the road, you won't be there, he'll freak out and call you a hundred thousand times...

   1991, Callie Khouri, Thelma & Louise

   Synonyms: set one's hair on fire, flip out, flip shit, flip one's shit · Antonyms: bum out

2. informaltransitiveTo scare or unnerve someone.

   Don't take off your shirt when working behind the counter. You'll freak the customers out.

   1 more example

   Even the blithely unselfconscious Homer is more than a little freaked out by West’s private reverie, and encourages his spawn to move slowly away without making eye contact with the crazy man.

   2012 June 3, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Mr. Plow” (season 4, episode 9; originally aired 11/19/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), archived from the original on 26 Oct 2012

3. informalintransitiveTo be upset or nervous; to be scared or unnerved.
4. informalintransitiveTo adopt an unconventional (especially countercultural) persona or appearance.

   Formed in the heart of the British Invasion in 1964 as the Nevadas, the Jacks decided to freak out and grow their hair long.

   1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 213

   1 more example

   On a personal level, Freaking Out is a process whereby an individual casts off outmoded and restricting standards of thinking, dress, and social etiquette in order to express CREATIVELY his relationship to his immediate environment and the social structure as a whole.

   1966, Frank Zappa, “Freak Out! liner notes”, in Freak Out!