conniption

Since 1833, from American English. Unknown origin, probably a fanciful alternation of corruption etc., or maybe related to captious.

• IPA^(key): /kəˈnɪp.ʃən/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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conniption (plural conniptions)

1. (informal) A fit of anger or panic; conniption fit.

   Synonyms: tantrum; see also Thesaurus:tantrum

   When she came downstairs and saw what her children were eating, she had a conniption.

   • 2001, “My Plague”, in Iowa, performed by Slipknot:

     I'm in conniptions for the final act you came here for

   • 2008 October 20, Businessweek:

     threatened by the conniptions gripping Wall Street

   • 2010 November 10, John Caramanica, “Monopoly by Marc Jacobs”, in The New York Times‎:

     MARC JACOBS is the Michael Bloomberg of the West Village and also its Sam Walton. Jane Jacobs would have loved him, if she wasn’t overcome by conniptions at his oozing influence over her beloved neighborhood streets.

   • 2024 November 27, Rabian Ardaya, “For the Dodgers, signing Blake Snell always made the most sense”, in The New York Times‎:

     The Dodgers tried late to make a push for him last winter, with their splashy offseason already over the billion-dollar mark. They expressed interest in him over the trade deadline, even if prying him from the San Francisco Giants would have caused a conniption for fans of the historic rivals.

2. A fit of laughing; convulsion.

   Synonym: the giggles

   The joke was not that funny, but he went into conniptions laughing.

• Appendix:Fanciful 19th century American coinages

• “conniption”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “conniption”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “conniption”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.