out of commission
English
Prepositional phrase
out of commission
- Not operational; not functioning properly.
- 1906, Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Man in Lower Ten, ch. 19,
- One pair of handcuffs will put both hands out of commission.
- 2008, Scot Lehigh, "Making (no) sense of police details," Boston Globe, 2 Jul.,
- A traffic light was out of commission, leaving motorists to sort their way through an occasionally busy intersection.
- 1906, Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Man in Lower Ten, ch. 19,
Usage notes
- Sometimes used in the expression "to put out of commission," meaning "to make inoperative."
Synonyms
- broken
- out of order
- out of service
- bollocksed