basket case

basket case
a basket case
Fig. a person who is a nervous wreck. (Formerly referred to a person who is physically disabled in all four limbs because of paralysis or amputation.) •

After that all-day meeting, I was practically a basket case.

•

My weeks of worry were so intense that I was a real basket case afterwards.

* * *
{n.}, {slang}, {also informal} 1. A person who has had both arms and both legs cut off as a result of war or other misfortune. 2. A helpless person who is unable to take care of himself, as if carted around in a basket by others. * /Stop drinking, or else you'll wind up a basket case!/

Dictionary of American idioms. 2013.

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