freak out

Formsfreaks out, freaking out, freaked out

Pluralfreak outs, freak-outs

1. 1
   phrasal verbcolloquialintransitive

   To react with extreme fear or anger, losing one's composure or behaving irrationally.

   When the fire alarm went off mid-flight, a few passengers freaked out and started shouting.

   Don't freak out. The dent in the car can be fixed.

   Similarpanic

2. 2
   phrasal verbcolloquialtransitive

   To frighten or unsettle someone.

   The silent stranger at the window was enough to freak out the night staff.

   Some guests were a little freaked out by the host's taxidermy collection.

   Similarfrighten, scare, unsettle, spook

   Note

   This is the causative partner of feeling scared or nervous: whatever freaks you out leaves you freaked out. A noun object can sit inside the phrase (you'll freak the customers out) or after it, but a pronoun always goes inside: freak them out. The past participle also works as an adjective with by, as in more than a little freaked out by a stranger.

3. 3
   phrasal verbcolloquialintransitive

   To feel upset or nervous, or to be scared or unsettled.

   She was quietly freaking out about the interview but managed to look calm.

   Plenty of first-time parents freak out a bit when the baby won't stop crying.

   Similarpanic, worry, stress

4. 4
   noun · freak-outcountable

   A sudden episode of losing one's composure through extreme fear, anger, or upset.

   The long delay set off a mass freak-out at the gate.

   His freak-out over a parking ticket became a running joke in the office.

   Similarmeltdown, panic

5. 5
   phrasal verbcolloquialintransitive

   To take on an unconventional look or persona, especially one associated with the counterculture.

   By the late sixties even clean-cut pop groups had begun to freak out, trading matching suits for beads and velvet.

   He freaked out for a summer, wearing a kaftan and calling himself Moonbeam.

   Note

   This sense stays closest to the phrase's countercultural roots: the Jacks, formed in 1964, "decided to freak out and grow their hair long". It is about changing how one looks and lives, not about losing control, and a modern reader may hear the panic meaning first, so outside writing about the sixties it needs context to be understood.

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