unhinge
English
Etymology
un- + hinge
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ʌnˈhɪnd͡ʒ/
- Rhymes: -ɪndʒ
Verb
unhinge (third-person singular simple present unhinges, present participle unhinging, simple past and past participle unhinged)
- To remove the leaf of a door or a window from its supporting hinges.
- (zoology, of a joint) To dislocate.
- Many snakes can unhinge their jaw joints to swallow large prey.
- To mentally disturb.
- 2008, Peter Lorge, “The Great Ditch of China and the Song-Liao Border”, in Don J. Wyatt, editor, Battlefronts Real and Imagined: War, Border, and Identity in the Chinese Middle Period, New York, N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, pages 59–74 at 67:
- Taizong's failure fooled no one. Indeed, one of Taizong's own sons may well have been unhinged by his father's obvious fratricidal and nepoticidal actions. These personal considerations directly affected Taizong's policy decisions, and thus warrant some discussion.
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Translations
remove a leaf from its supporting hinges
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to mentally disturb
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