bin
bargain-bin
1. adjective Sold at an extremely low or reduced price; very inexpensive. The term comes from a bin or some other container in a store or shop where very inexpensive items or those at greatly reduced prices are sold. I found these great bargain-bin sneakers on the clearance rack at the shoe store.
2. adjective Of very poor or inferior quality; having very little or no value. It's no wonder your bargain-bin phone has stopped working. If you want a phone that lasts, you have to pay the price for it.
loony bin
slang A psychiatric hospital or insane asylum. From a glib adaptation of the word "lunatic," the phrase is now considered tactless at best, extremely insulting at worst. Back in my grandfather's time, anyone suffering from severe depression or anxiety would have just been thrown in the loony bin, so people suffered in silence and in secret. When she joked about putting someone like my brother in the loony bin, I threw my drink in her face and walked out of the restaurant.
See also: bin, loony
sin bin
In certain sports such as ice hockey or lacrosse, the area in which a penalized player must stay for a particular duration. How are we going to tie this game with our best player in the sin bin? Both players were sent to the sin bin for fighting on the ice.
See also: bin, sin
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
loony bin
n. an insane asylum; a mental hospital. Today’s loony bins are far different from those of just a few decades ago.
See also: bin, loony
sin-bin
n. a van fitted with bedding as a place for necking and lovemaking. Willy said he was saving his money to buy a sin-bin so he could have more fun on dates.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
loony bin
Insane asylum. The word “lunatic” comes from the word for “moon”; madness was associated in many cultures with the effect of the phases of the moon on the human mind. From lunatic came loony, and loony bin was where insane people were incarcerated. The phrase is now considered insulting in the extreme, as are “booby hatch” (originally a covered passageway down a ship deck), “funny farm,” “drool academy,” and “foam rubber city” (a reference to padded cells).
See also: bin, loony
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price
- bulletproof
- point-blank
- appropriate for
- milksop
- tread tackie
- SBD
- milktoast
- milquetoast
- as (something) as the next man/woman/person
- as good, well, etc. as the next person