lunatic fringe

noun

Definition of lunatic fringe

: the members of a usually political or social movement espousing extreme, eccentric, or fanatical views

Examples of lunatic fringe in a Sentence

His nomination is opposed by the party's lunatic fringe.

Recent Examples on the Web Some Democrats may regard such olive branches as naïvely ineffectual or as pandering to the lunatic fringe. — Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, "The Democrats Keep Recycling Tired Rhetoric," 11 Jan. 2021 Farhan Zaidi, the Giants’ president of baseball operations, should not make decisions based on the moods or desires of the lunatic fringe. — Scott Ostler, SFChronicle.com, "Free Joey Bart! Giants are holding him at their Area 51 for no good reason," 15 Aug. 2020 Even a coach like Frost, who grew up a football hero in Nebraska and quarterbacked the Cornhuskers to a national championship during the program’s heyday, isn’t immune to the noxious negativity created by the lunatic fringe. — Mike Bianchi, orlandosentinel.com, "Memo to Scott Frost: Unlike your Cornhuskers, UCF players are cold-blooded | Commentary," 25 Oct. 2019 The panic in Peshawar showed that concerns are not limited to a lunatic fringe, however. — The Economist, "Pakistan is trying new tactics to eliminate polio," 4 July 2019 And this prediction isn’t coming from the lunatic fringes of tech, either. — Ana Veciana-suarez, miamiherald, "Humans and robots on the verge of getting romantically involved | Miami Herald," 29 Jan. 2018 On the site, the ease with which a person on can be transported from any innocuous search to the lunatic fringe of YouTube is startling. — NBC News, "As algorithms take over, YouTube's recommendations highlight a human problem," 19 Apr. 2018

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

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Last Updated

18 Jan 2021

Cite this Entry

“Lunatic fringe.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lunatic%20fringe. Accessed 26 Feb. 2021.

Style: MLA

MLA