Meaning of basket case | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Someone (especially a soldier) who has lost all four limbs.
   colloquial, historical, offensive
2. An institution or country in a bad condition or difficult situation (economically, financially or otherwise).
   colloquial
3. One made powerless or ineffective, as by nerves, panic, stress or exhaustion; someone considered mentally unstable.
   colloquial

Equivalents

Examples

“The Surgeon General of the Army […] denies […] that there is any foundation for the stories that have been circulated […] of the existence of ‘basket cases’ in our hospitals.”

“Her mind, at its worst, is in ways analogous to a basket-case who seethes with desires to move but has no limbs.”

“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.”

“The stereotypical image of North Korea as a hopeless economic basket case ignores the fact that there are extensive natural resources there.”

“The Germany described by this Frankfurt School professor is a basket case – post-growth, post-democratic, with the first fascists in the Bundestag since the Third Reich.”

“But before that could happen, the large parts of the business that were a complete basket case had to be dealt with severely.”

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

“Often, when you share a deep dark secret with friends, your friends start to treat you differently. It is very damaging to be treated like a basket case, when you intended only to CONFIDE a fear.”

“Taddeo’s sad, searing, sometimes unbearably painful tales of bad decisions, agonies and humiliations at the shrine of “love” show us that, in spite of 10 to 15 minutes here and there of truly hot sex, a woman “in love” is frequently a basket case.”

CEFR level