deranged

adjective

de·​ranged di-ˈrānjd 

1

often offensive : mentally unsound : insane sense 1b

—not used technically

2

sometimes offensive : wildly odd or eccentric

His life was crowded, rather than peacefully isolated, and certainly never of an Olympian detachment, even though he was capable of quite deranged gestures of show-offy extravagance—such as buying an enormous house, more suitable for a banker than a painter …

—Robert Hughes

Or you could take part in a deranged computer game where you had to cycle after a huge beach ball, scoop it up and throw it through a hoop, scoring points for each goal.

—Natasha Ellis

3

dated, now sometimes offensive : disturbed or disordered in function, structure, or condition

My leg was propped up on a library chair at the time, as it was too deranged to bend.

—Cynthia Gorney

But other work indicates that, in addition, the B lymphocytes of lupus patients are inherently deranged …

—Moncef Zouali

Synonyms

• balmy
• barmy [chiefly British]
• bats
• batty
• bedlam
• bonkers
• brainsick
• bughouse [slang]
• certifiable
• crackbrained
• cracked
• crackers
• crackpot
• cranky [dialect]
• crazed
• crazy
• cuckoo
• daffy
• daft
• demented
• fruity [slang]
• gaga
• haywire
• insane
• kooky
• kookie
• loco [slang]
• loony
• looney
• loony tunes
• looney tunes
• lunatic
• mad
• maniacal
• maniac
• mental
• meshuga
• meshugge
• meshugah
• meshuggah
• moonstruck
• non compos mentis
• nuts
• nutty
• psycho
• psychotic
• scatty [chiefly British]
• screwy
• unbalanced
• unhinged
• unsound
• wacko
• whacko
• wacky
• whacky
• wud [chiefly Scottish]

Examples of deranged in a Sentence

a deranged prisoner who had been in that rat-infested hole for 20 years

Recent Examples on the Web

Here, a young fisherman washes up on a mysterious island, only to be captured by a deranged captain who is hunted by a dark hungry beast. —John Hopewell, Variety, 5 Apr. 2023

Monday’s murder of six people, including three 9-year-olds, by a deranged attacker at a Christian primary school in Nashville is another sign of mental illness unleashed. —The Editorial Board, WSJ, 29 Mar. 2023

Joe, constantly bickering and wrestling with his evil side (personified in his head as a deranged version of Rhys Montrose (Ed Speleers), still around even after Joe killed the real Rhys Montrose), has decided to kill himself after Marianne seemingly died as his prisoner. —Evan Romano, Men's Health, 10 Mar. 2023

In the first film of the franchise, Pattinson's Batman follows the trail of a deranged serial killer called the Riddler (Paul Dano) and uncovers corruption in Gotham, meeting the antiheroine Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz) along the way. —Charlotte Walsh, Peoplemag, 9 Mar. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1743, in the meaning defined at sense 1