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tetched

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Somewhat unbalanced mentally; touched.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective colloquial Touched: mildly deranged, somewhat mentally dysfunctional.
  • adjective colloquial Touched: physically contacted, impacted, or handled.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration (influenced by obsolete tached, of a given disposition) of touched.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Variant of touched.

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Examples

  • Maybe if we acted more like the NRA of the 40's and 50's we'd triple our membership but as of now, the majority of gun owners think the NRA leadership is tetched.

    Palin gives 'stirring' gun rights speech at NRA dinner, says group 2009

  • Melvyn Douglas plays the guardian of Patricia Gozzi, who is a bit tetched in the head who becomes involved with Dean Stockwell.

    At the Beach Jacqueline T Lynch 2009

  • I remember a George Carlin bit that had a bunch of alternative terms for “tetched in the head”, of which my favorite was “a few Senators short of a quorum.”

    I Hate Applescript, I Need Help 2004

  • Because there is no compromise with someone as tetched to wear virginity panties.

    THE NEWS BLOG 2005

  • DeBeck was also responsible for popularizing the expression “tetched in the haid.”

    The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time William Safire 2004

  • DeBeck was also responsible for popularizing the expression “tetched in the haid.”

    The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time William Safire 2004

  • It also sounds similar to the U.S. colloquial tetched "touched" in the head, in the sense of being mildly unstable or mentally handicapped.

    languagehat.com: TITCHY. 2004

  • The world's Platts have always looked on reformers as political aberrations to be scorned as "bleeding hearts" and "do-gooders" out of touch with reality, if not actually tetched in the head, and therefore dangerous to political stability.

    The Performer Baker, Russell 2002

  • All kinds of valuables, they say — back in the 1920s — just before he died, when he was a little tetched in the head.

    The Cat Who Went Underground Braun, Lilian Jackson 1989

  • She looked at me as if I might be a little tetched myself.

    Hoodwink Pronzini, Bill 1981

Comments

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  • chained_bear commented on the word tetched

    Usage notes:

    1983 C. MCCARRY Last Supper III. vi. 333 These people are tetched in the head.

    1984 S. BELLOW Him with his Foot in his Mouth 39 If she had been a little tetched before, melodramatic, in her fifties she seemed to become crazed.

    January 31, 2007