stir-crazy

stir-crazy

Acutely anxious, restless, irritable, irrational, and/or depressed from remaining for too long in an unstimulating, confined, and/or isolated environment. "Stir" in this usage is a slang word for prison. We thought taking our family vacation in a tiny cottage out in the country would be a nice break from city life, but we all went a bit stir-crazy after a few days. The doctor said I need to remain in bed as much as possible, but I'll go stir-crazy if I can't get out of the house at least once a day.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

*stir-crazy

crazy from being confined. (*Typically: be ~; become ~; go ~; get ~; make someone ~. stir is a slang word for prison.) I am going to go stir-crazy if I don't get out of this office.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

stir crazy

mod. anxious and mentally disturbed from being confined, as in prison. (see also stir.) I was going stir crazy in my little room, so I moved to a bigger place.
See also: crazy, stir
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • stir crazy
  • go stir-crazy
  • cabin fever
  • joe job
  • go bonkers
  • go zonkers
  • cat on a hot tin roof, like a
  • set (one's) back up
  • gritchy
  • (one's) back is up
References in periodicals archive
Even people who haven't seen it know that The Shining, Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of the Stephen King novel, is the scarific tale of a stir-crazy caretakerJack Nicholson, no lessdriven mad by the ghosts haunting an isolated, off-season hotel to murder his wife, played by Shelley Duvall, and their small son, who happens to be psychic.
Getting the go-around at work, or grief from the stir-crazy kids?
However, the slight plot (we're never really shown how they escape, they just kind of get out) is secondary to watching the unlikely trio build a begrudging friendship - Waits and Lurie going all out not to throttle a stir-crazy Benigni who, in an eight by 10 cell, is the irritation equivalent of a wasp in a diver's helmet.
She has been going stir-crazy tucked up at home and, with the permission of her medical team, was told she could fly.
This whole record came from being stir-crazy on a plane."
But it is unrealistic, and counter-productive, for players to go stir-crazy in their hotel rooms.
"People are getting a little stir-crazy, feeling claustrophobic," said Chris Cognac, 39, who was returning with a group of family and friends - including 10 children - from a week in Puerta Vallarta.
Stash a thermos of something warm in your car for the drive home, and put those stir-crazy feelings out of your head until the next rainy day.
But behind the scenes, two stir-crazy teenagers were trying to break out.
Perhaps it's the thought of all that time she's missed that is making Camille go a little bit stir-crazy cooped up in the house.
It seems they got stir-crazy in South Africa so lessons must be learned.
John Terry (above) complained the England players were going stir-crazy, with little to do in their free time, but King Leruo hit back, saying: "I think there's more than enough to do here, so you'll have to ask John Terry about that.
Bars and restaurants were packed as football-mad Argentina went stir-crazy.
Perhaps the idea of the Belgian prison guards is not so stir-crazy after all.
This doesn't stop Helen going quietly stir-crazy on the cooking sherry - but the Webbers remain a dedicated suburban subterranean family, raising their son Adam (Brendan Fraser) to be a well-educated, polite young man, whose only fault is putting his elbows on the table during mealtime.