basket case
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.06 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An institution or country in a bad condition or difficult situation (economically, financially or otherwise).
Colloquial
noun
One made powerless or ineffective, as by nerves, panic, stress or exhaustion; someone considered mentally unstable.
Colloquial
Example Sentences
- "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."