stir-crazy

adjective

Of a prisoner, mentally unbalanced due to prolonged incarceration.

“After so many days of rain, the kids started to get a bit stir-crazy.”

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Meanings

adjectivestir-crazy (comparative more stir-crazy, superlative most stir-crazy)

comparative more stir-crazy · superlative most stir-crazy · alternative stir crazy

  1. slangOf a prisoner, mentally unbalanced due to prolonged incarceration.
  2. broadlyslangRestless, uncomfortable, or impatient due to inactivity or confinement.

    After so many days of rain, the kids started to get a bit stir-crazy.

    1 more example

    And many, at the same time, are anxious and bored and underemployed and overemployed and stir-crazy and uncertain and lonely and terrified.

    2020 March 19, Megan Garber, “The Utter Weirdness of Small Talk in a Pandemic”, in The Atlantic

Origin

First attested around 1925, from prison slang stir (“jail or prison”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

stir-crazy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stir-crazy

MLA

“stir-crazy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stir-crazy. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “stir-crazy,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stir-crazy.

Source: stir-crazy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.