haywire

UK: /ˈheɪwaɪə^r/ US: /ˈheɪˌwaɪr/ ,(hā′wī^ər′)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

hay•wire /ˈheɪˌwaɪr/  adj. [be + ~]

1. Informal Terms not right;
   crazy:
   There is something haywire about this situation.

adv. 

2. out of control;
   in disorder:
   Things went haywire when the storm struck.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

hay•wire  (hā′wī^ər′), n. 

1. Agriculture wire used to bind bales of hay.

adj. Informal. 

2. Informal Terms in disorder:
   The town is haywire because of the bus strike.
3. Informal Terms out of control;
   disordered;
   crazy:
   The car went haywire. He's been haywire since he got the bad news.

• hay + wire 1900–05

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

haywire / ˈheɪˌwaɪə/ adjective (postpositive)

1. (of things) not functioning properly; disorganized (esp in the phrase go haywire)
2. (of people) erratic or crazy

Etymology: 20th Century: alluding to the disorderly tangle of wire removed from bales of hay