Idiom
fly off the handle
Meaning
To become very angry or enraged; to throw a fit or go crazy.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Please do not fly off the handle over such a small mistake.”
“My boss tends to fly off the handle whenever a project deadline is missed by even a few hours.”
“Despite his usual composure, the senator began to fly off the handle when the reporter questioned the integrity of his campaign finances.”
Examples
simple
“Please do not fly off the handle over such a small mistake.”
contextual
“My boss tends to fly off the handle whenever a project deadline is missed by even a few hours.”
complex
“Despite his usual composure, the senator began to fly off the handle when the reporter questioned the integrity of his campaign finances.”
Origin
From the image of an axe head becoming loose and suddenly flying free of its handle, a vivid metaphor for losing control. The phrase is an early 19th-century American idiom, with printed examples first appearing c. the 1810s–1830s.
Key words
Related idioms
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