Definition of HAYWIRE

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The wire used in baling hay - haywire - is often used in makeshift repairs. This hurried and temporary use of haywire gave rise to the adjective haywire. When the adjective was first used in the early 20th century, it was primarily found in the phrase haywire outfit, which originally denoted a poorly equipped group of loggers and then anything that was flimsy or patched together. This led to a "hastily patched-up" sense, which, in turn, gave us the more commonly used meaning, "being out of order or having gone wrong." The "crazy" sense of haywire may have been suggested by the difficulty of handling the springy wire, its tendency to get tangled around legs, or the disorderly appearance of the temporary repair jobs for which it was used.

Examples of haywire in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Pass rusher is an obvious need for Seattle, especially if anything goes haywire in the contract talks with Frank Clark. — Bob Condotta, The Seattle Times, "Why Mel Kiper Jr. thinks Jachai Polite is a good fit for the Seahawks," 19 Feb. 2019 Yet this debate has taken all that to a new level, and making what is left of the conventional political system go haywire in the process. — Gerald F. Seib, WSJ, "The New Kind of Fury Unleashed by the Kavanaugh Fight," 27 Sep. 2018 Back during the total solar eclipse last August, Marie Claire reported that many women noticed their period cycles going haywire around the time of the eclipse. — Katherine J. Igoe, Marie Claire, "What to Know About Your Period During the Super Wolf Blood Moon," 15 Jan. 2019 Ironically, the gene therapies that were used before CRISPR had a higher risk of going haywire. — Jacqueline Detwiler, Popular Mechanics, "Legal vs. Illegal Gene Editing: Here's What's Banned, and Why," 4 Dec. 2018 The past few months have brought a hurricane of horror stories about social media sites gone haywire. — Carlos Maza, Vox, "Why every social media site is a dumpster fire," 21 Sep. 2018 On top of hormones going haywire, hot flashes can disrupt your sleep, delivering another blow. — Sarah Richards, Woman's Day, "Quiet Your Mind in Anxious Times With These Expert Tricks," 14 Aug. 2018 Birth control taken continuously, meaning no sugar pills during your period, can really make your hormones haywire. — Sarah Hosseini, Good Housekeeping, "Just Because You Can't See My Endometriosis Doesn't Mean It's Not There," 12 Mar. 2016 Three years have also passed in the film, and the damage wrought in that movie is still being cleaned up — $800 million has been paid out to patrons unlucky enough to have been in attendance when things went haywire. — Bill Goodykoontz, azcentral, "'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' gets off the island," 20 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'haywire.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.