go postal
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go postal
1. slang To shoot or otherwise attack one's coworkers (and/or random people) in a rage, typically after becoming disgruntled in one's workplace. The phrase originated after a series of unrelated incidents in the 1980s and '90s in which American postal workers shot coworkers or members of the public. You've got to watch out for the quiet types—they're the ones who end up going postal and shooting up the place.
2. slang By extension, to become wildly or uncontrollably angry. He wasn't happy with me and went postal when he heard what I had to say.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
go postal
mainly AMERICAN, INFORMALIf someone goes postal, they become extremely angry and lose control of themselves. He went postal and punched a police officer in the face. Compare with go ballistic. Note: This expression comes from a series of shootings carried out by US postal workers.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
go postal
go mad, especially from stress. US informalThis expression arose as a result of several recorded cases in the USA in which postal-service employees ran amok and shot colleagues.
1999 New Yorker A man two seats away ‘went postal’ when the battery on his cell phone gave out. A heavyset passenger had to sit on the man until the train finally pulled into Grand Central.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
go ˈpostal
(American English, informal) become extremely angry or start behaving in a violent and angry way: According to one eye witness, the man ‘went postal, and started hitting his computer’.This expression originated in the USA in the 1990s, where there were several incidents of postal workers losing control and shooting members of the public in post offices.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
go postal
in. to become wild; to go berserk. He made me so mad I thought I would go postal.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
go postal
Slang To become extremely angry or deranged, especially in an outburst of violence.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.