screw loose

plural screws loose

1. slangA state of insanity or eccentricity.

   I think there's a screw loose in that brain of hers!

   1 more example

   Well, I don't say that he is strictly a lunatic, but there is obviously a screw loose somewhere.

   1914, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados

   Synonyms: slate loose, tile loose

2. archaicslangA state of enmity or disagreement.

   I understand there's a screw loose between you two, so I've brought Morton that you may shake hands, and be comfortable together.

   1830, Anna Maria Morgan, Horatio in Search of a Wife, page 155

   2 more examples

   There is evidently a screw loose between us and some or other of the countries from which, according to royal speeches, we are everlastingly receiving assurances of love and amity.

   1845, Times and Seasons, volume 6, page 1050

   There is a screw loose between the Austrians and French about Venice, which the latter wish to remain as a Republic, and they are also rather angry with Prussia, but I hope the French squadron at Trieste will not come to blows.

   1880, Sir Augustus Phillimore, The Life of Admiral of the Fleet Sir William Parker, page 404