lose one's marbles

present singular third person loses one's marbles · participle present losing one's marbles · participle past lost one's marbles · past lost one's marbles

1. Synonym of lose one's mind (“to become crazy”).

   1981 April 13, New York magazine, vol. 14, no. 15, There it was again, the suggestion that the governor had lost his marbles. And, to be truthful, Breslin is a bit late on the loony angle.

   3 more examples

   If my golfing friends would see me now, they'd crap in their pants laughing at me. They'd say that poor jerk had lost his marbles.

   2004, Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Dick Gerde, A world for Julius

   Jimi's obsession with his guitar garnered him a nickname around Clarksville: Marbles. He was so named because people thought he had "lost his marbles" and was crazy as a result of his excessive practicing.

   2005, Charles R. Cross, Room full of mirrors: a biography of Jimi Hendrix

   On the substance of Smith’s grumble – that Microsoft’s remedies for the cloud part of the gaming market were sufficient – opinion obviously differs, but the CMA hasn’t lost its marbles.

   2023 April 27, Nils Pratley, “Ignore Microsoft’s whines about the Activision takeover. The CMA did its job”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   Synonyms: lose one's mind