freak out
Verb (intransitive):
- To react with extreme emotional distress, fear, excitement, or disorientation; to lose control of one's composure or rationality.
- To experience a sudden, intense, and often irrational change in mental state, typically characterized by panic, anxiety, or overwhelming emotion.
Verb (transitive):
- To cause someone to react with such extreme emotional distress or excitement; to make someone lose their composure.
Noun (informal):
- An instance of someone reacting in such an extreme manner; a state of panic or intense excitement.
Verb (intransitive): My mom will freak out if she sees this mess. (She will react with extreme anger/distress.) I freaked out during the horror movie and had to leave. (I became very scared and lost my composure.) He freaks out every time he has to speak in public. (He regularly experiences intense anxiety.)
Verb (transitive): The sudden loud noise freaked out the cat. (It caused the cat to panic.) Don't tell her the bad news yet; it will freak her out. (It will cause her to become very upset.)
Noun: She had a total freak-out when she couldn't find her passport. (She had an episode of panic.) After the argument, he needed a moment to recover from his freak-out. (He needed to recover from his state of extreme agitation.)
"to freak out on someone": To direct one's extreme emotional reaction (often anger) toward a specific person. He freaked out on his assistant for a minor mistake. (He directed his angry outburst at his assistant.)
"to be freaked out": To be in a state of fear, anxiety, or disturbance (often used as an adjective). I'm still freaked out by what I saw last night. (I am still disturbed/anxious about it.)
- Freak (noun, informal): A person considered to be unusual, eccentric, or obsessed with a particular interest. (e.g., ).
- Freaky (adjective): Strange, unusual, or frightening. (e.g., ).
- Freakish (adjective): Very unusual or strange, often in a way that is disturbing. (e.g., ).
- Panic: To feel sudden uncontrollable fear or anxiety.
- Flip out (informal): To react with strong emotion, especially anger or excitement.
- Lose it (informal): To lose control of one's emotions or composure.
- Go crazy (informal): To behave in a wild or uncontrolled way.
- Freak over: To worry or obsess excessively about something (less common). (She worries excessively about details.)
- Make someone freak: To cause someone to panic or become extremely upset (informal). (It causes me to panic.)
- a wild delusion (especially one induced by a hallucinogenic drug)
- lose one's nerve
- When he saw the accident, he freaked out