Lexic.us

Definition of Haywire

1. Adjective. Informal or slang terms for mentally irregular. "It used to drive my husband balmy"

2. Noun. Wire for tying up bales of hay.

3. Adjective. Not functioning properly. "Something is wrong with the engine"

Definition of Haywire

1. Noun. Wire used to bind bales of hay. ¹

2. Adjective. Roughly-made, unsophisticated, decrepit (from the use of haywire for temporary repairs). ¹

3. Adjective. Behaving erratically or uncontrollably, especially of a machine or mechanical process; usually used with the verb "go". ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Haywire

1. wire used in baling hay [n -S]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Haywire

hayseeds haysel haysels hayshed haysheds haystack haystacks haystalk haystalks haywagon

haywagons haywain haywains hayward haywards haywire (current term) haywires hazahs hazan hazanim

hazans hazard hazard insurance hazard rate hazardable hazarded hazarder hazarders hazarding hazardize

Literary usage of Haywire

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. U. S. Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and Their Impact on the Health of the Persian by DIANE Publishing Company (1997)
"I'm going to give you some names of spouses that are sick, whose reproductive situation has been knocked completely haywire since their husbands have come ..."

2. United States Supreme Court Reports by Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, United States Supreme Court (1886)
"haywire, 51 III. 343. The second point made in the brief by counsel for plaintiff in error, that the written application was the sole basis of the contract, ..."

3. A Dictionary of the English Language: In which the Words are Deduced from ...by Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson (1805)
"... could not by any politick act of state be dis- *>>«d- haywire}. Since all God's creatures, mortal and divine, Since God himself, is her eternal forj. ..."

4. Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Supreme Court of the United States by United States Supreme Court, William Cranch, Henry Wheaton, Richard Peters, Benjamin Chew Howard, Jeremiah Sullivan Black (1903)
"And where this is the case the amount ascertained is usually, under the direc- 1 CITED. Roberts v. Cooper, 20 How., 481 ; Tyler v. haywire, 17 Wall., 284; ..."

5. From Dominoes to Dynamos: The Transformation of Southeast Asia by John Bresnan (1994)
"US-Japan relations should stay as they are—to keep Japan from 'going haywire.' But the United States won't be here indefinitely. ..."

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