‖ détraqué, n. and a.
(detrake)
Also fem. détraquée.
[Fr., pa. pple. of détraquer to put out of order, derange.]
A. n. A deranged person; a psychopath.
| 1902 W. James Var. Relig. Exper. i. 7 From the point of view of his nervous constitution, [George] Fox was a psychopath or détraqué of the deepest dye. 1936 D. Barnes Nightwood iii. 80 Those who love a city..become the shame of that city, the détraqués, the paupers. 1969 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 25 Apr. 58/4 The detraquées—or potential nymphomaniacs—with their desires inflamed by concealment and repression. |
B. adj. Deranged; crazy; psychopathic.
| 1925 A. Huxley Those Barren Leaves iv. v. 307 German romanticism, a little détraqué, turns..into expressionismus. 1930 Times Lit. Suppl. 13 Mar. 209/2 Here too are Augusta Leigh, refined, plaintive and détraquée, [etc.]. 1958 A. Wilson Middle Age of Mrs Eliot ii. 255 She may be détraquée, as they say, but she's strictly U. |