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out of joint. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Prepositional phrase
out of joint
- (anatomy) Dislocated.
I fell over and put my shoulder out of joint.
c. 1604–1626, doubtfully attributed to Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Faithful Friends”, in Henry [William] Weber, editor, The Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, in Fourteen Volumes: , volume I, Edinburgh: F C and J Rivington; , published 1812, →OCLC, Act II, scene ii, page 50:Fla[via]. Come, Sir Pergamus, till your horse come, you and I'll go play at shuttle-cock. / Per[gamus]. A match i'faith. I love that sport a' life. Yet my mother charged me not to use it for fear of putting my arm out of joint.
- (by extension) Chaotic, disordered, out of control.
c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shake-speare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: (First Quarto), London: [Valentine Simmes] for N L and Iohn Trundell, published 1603, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]:The time is out of ioynt, O curſed ſpite, / That euer I was borne to ſet it right, […]
1864 August – 1866 January, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, “A Passive Coquette”, in Wives and Daughters. An Every-day Story. , volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., , published 1866, →OCLC, page 14:Her stepmother had whimsical moods; and if Cynthia displeased her, she would oppress Molly with small kindnesses and pseudo-affection. Or else everything was wrong, the world was out of joint, and Molly had failed in her mission to set it right, and was to be blamed accordingly.
- Not in harmony, in step or in line (with something).
1933, Robert Byron, First Russia, Then Tibet, London: Macmillan, Part I, Chapter 5, p. 71:While the Kremlin at Moscow exhales a paradoxical sympathy with this renewal of old tradition, Leningrad seems out of joint with Bolshevism and wears a sad air, as though mourning for an interlude which is past.
Derived terms
Translations
disordered, out of control