go postal

to behave in an uncontrolled and violent (gewalttätig) manner

TRANSLATION

plötzlich gewalttätig werden

STATISTICS

IN THE PRESS

The other day I asked what had happened to someone who was around the campus last year. "She went postal," I was told. That's to say, she had threatened to bring a gun in to settle some "work issues".

(John Sutherland - The Guardian - Monday April 23, 2001)

Did you
know?

go postal

This interesting phrase originated in the USA in 1990s, where there were several incidents of people going berserk and shooting numerous members of the public in post offices.

a close synonym is "to go ballistic", other related words are:

berserk, bitten, bugged,crazed, crazy, delirious, deranged, extreme, fanatical, flipped, frantic, freaked out, frenetic, frenzied, furious, hot, hydrophobic, infuriated, insane, intemperate, intolerant, irrational, mad, mad-dog, maniacal, narrow-minded, nutty, obsessed, overboard, raging, sizzling, smoking, steamed up, stoned, ultra, ultraist, violent, wild.

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