lunatic fringe

noun

: the members of a usually political or social movement espousing extreme, eccentric, or fanatical views

Examples of lunatic fringe in a Sentence

His nomination is opposed by the party's lunatic fringe.
Recent Examples on the Web What will surely rankle climate-change activists is that Pielke seems to focus on the foibles of the consensus scientists rather than on those of the lunatic fringe. IEEE Spectrum, 3 Jan. 2011 Under relatively secure conditions in 1928, the German electorate viewed the Nazi Party as a lunatic fringe, giving it less than three percent of the vote in national elections that year. Ronald Inglehart, Foreign Affairs, 16 Apr. 2018 Davis endured nasty and sometimes threatening letters from a true lunatic fringe. Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 May 2021 And yet, in recent months, the lab leak thesis has inched its way from the lunatic fringe towards the credible center of American public discourse. Eamon Barrett, Fortune, 25 May 2021 Farhan Zaidi, the Giants’ president of baseball operations, should not make decisions based on the moods or desires of the lunatic fringe. Scott Ostler, SFChronicle.com, 15 Aug. 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lunatic fringe.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1913, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of lunatic fringe was in 1913

Dictionary Entries Near lunatic fringe

Cite this Entry

“Lunatic fringe.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lunatic%20fringe. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!