out of joint
English
Prepositional phrase
out of joint
- (anatomy) Dislocated.
- I fell over and put my shoulder out of joint.
- c. 1604–1626, doubtfully attributed to Francis Beaumont; John Fletcher, “The Faithful Friends”, in Henry [William] Weber, editor, The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, in Fourteen Volumes: […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] F[rancis] C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington; […], published 1812, OCLC 1084827221, Act II, scene ii, page 50:
- Fla[via]. Come, Sir Pergamus, till your horse come, you and I'll go play at shuttle-cock. / Per[gamus]. A match i'faith. I love that sport a' life. Yet my mother charged me not to use it for fear of putting my arm out of joint.
- (by extension) Chaotic, disordered, out of control.
- c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shake-speare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and Iohn Trundell, published 1603, OCLC 84758312, [Act I, scene v]:
- The time is out of ioynt, O curſed ſpite, / That euer I was borne to ſet it right, […]
- 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 62, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, OCLC 2057953:
- If the time is out of joint, have I any calling or strength to set it right?
- 1864 August – 1866 January, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, “A Passive Coquette”, in Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1866, OCLC 83344188, page 14:
- Her stepmother had whimsical moods; and if Cynthia displeased her, she would oppress Molly with small kindnesses and pseudo-affection. Or else everything was wrong, the world was out of joint, and Molly had failed in her mission to set it right, and was to be blamed accordingly.
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- Not in harmony, in step or in line (with something).
- 1933, Robert Byron, First Russia, Then Tibet, London: Macmillan, Part I, Chapter 5, p. 71,
- While the Kremlin at Moscow exhales a paradoxical sympathy with this renewal of old tradition, Leningrad seems out of joint with Bolshevism and wears a sad air, as though mourning for an interlude which is past.
- 1933, Robert Byron, First Russia, Then Tibet, London: Macmillan, Part I, Chapter 5, p. 71,
Derived terms
- nose out of joint
Translations
anat. dislocated
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disordered, out of control
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not in harmony with sth.
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