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basket case

noun

Slang.

Offensive. a person who has had all four limbs amputated.
a person who is helpless or incapable of functioning normally, especially due to overwhelming stress, anxiety, or the like.
anything that is impaired or incapable of functioning:
Right after the war the conquered nation was considered an economic basket case.

basket case

noun

a person who is suffering from extreme nervous strain; nervous wreck
taboo.
a person who has had both arms and both legs amputated
1. someone or something that is incapable of functioning normally
2. ( as modifier )
  a basket-case economy

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Sensitive Note

In the sense of “an amputee,” this term is perceived as insulting. It is military slang dating from World War I. Basket cases were soldiers who had lost all of their limbs and could not be safely carried on stretchers, though these types of casualties were probably very rare. At that time, a basket case was a wicker basket used to carry linens or other dry goods.

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Word History and Origins

Origin of basket case¹

First recorded in 1915–20

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Idioms and Phrases

A person or thing too impaired to function. For example, The stress of moving twice in one year left her a basket case , or The republics of the former Soviet Union are economic basket cases . Originating in World War I for a soldier who had lost all four limbs in combat and consequently had to be carried in a litter (“basket”), this term was then transferred to an emotionally or mentally unstable person and later to anything that failed to function. [ Slang ; second half of 1900s]

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

That aside, politics were kept to a minimum, as the group delivered a high-voltage blast of their greatest hits, from the bratty pop-punk of Basket Case to the more reflective Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

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Yet as the group roared through oldies like “Basket Case,” “Holiday,” “Welcome to Paradise,” “Longview” and “Brain Stew,” you never forgot that you were watching a once-scrappy punk trio; Green Day still puts across the charming zeal that powered its mainstream breakthrough in the post-grunge mid-’90s.

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North Korea is still a basket case, and in exchange for enough material aid to survive another season, it has exported a huge percentage of its military resources to Russia, so much so that it probably couldn’t win a war against South Korea even if it wanted to start one.

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Peter's prediction: Chelsea looked like a basket case in the summer but they impressed me at Anfield earlier this month - they had a gameplan and played really well.

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When Fujimori took office in 1990, Peru was Latin America’s basket case.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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