Meaning

4 senses
  1. (colloquial, historical, offensive)Someone (especially a soldier) who has lost all four limbs.

  2. (colloquial)An institution or country in a bad condition or difficult situation (economically, financially or otherwise).

    This country is a financial basket case, a country so broke that it should be a perfect warning to lenders.

    Some countries are breadbaskets, others basket cases.

    hoffnungsloser Fall

  3. (colloquial)One made powerless or ineffective, as by nerves, panic, stress or exhaustion; someone considered mentally unstable.

    She was a complete basket case the morning of her wedding.

    Nervenbündel

  4. (colloquial)An item in a disassembled state that is brought to be repaired.

Examples

5 sentences
  1. Tom is a basket case.

  2. Tom said you were a basket case.

  3. She's a basket case.

    ruОна ненормальная. — Selena777

    deSie ist ein hoffnungsloser Fall. — Esperantostern

    CC BY 2.0 FR · Tatoeba · primitivo · A2Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  4. I'm not a basket case.

  5. I don't like seeming pessimistic, but John's a total basket case. He's not just useless either. He's lost his mind!

Translations

4 languages
Deutsch
in a bad condition:
one made powerless or ineffective, as by nerves, panic or stress:

Origin

From basket + case.

From basket + case.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

basket case — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto