throw a wobbly
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to suddenly become very angry or upset
Literally: throw a wobble
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
' At least she isn't going to throw another wobbly the second she sets eyes on you … but she's not going to like the idea of leaving tomorrow. '
All we know twenty past five she threw a wobbly and.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “throw a wobbly” mean?
to suddenly become very angry or upset Literally: throw a wobble
Is “throw a wobbly” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.