That John Clegg is one loose cannon. How did such a loose cannon get into a position of authority? A term of jealous criticism applied to individuals of rare flexibility and creativity, by mobs of petty-minded group-thinking procedure slaves. They called me a loose cannon until one of my crazy ideas saved them half a million bucks. Loose cannon —that's how it's spelled—referred to an actual weapon before it entered the language as a metaphor.
In the days before ships were equipped with fixed-turret guns, muzzle-loading cannons were mounted on wheels and rolled back and forth between gunports. A gun not properly secured could break loose either from the force of recoil or from the jostling of the vessel in choppy waters, presenting a hazard to sailors.
It's this loose cannon that President Theodore Roosevelt was probably thinking of when he borrowed the word to describe not a political opponent, but himself. Shortly after ascending to the presidency, Roosevelt began to worry about his legacy. Knowing that he would be only fifty-one years old after two terms, and perhaps with a lot of energy left to burn, Roosevelt lamented with candor to his friend, the journalist William Allan White, that he "[didn't] want to be the old cannon loose on the deck in the storm.
Our earliest recorded use of the phrase loose cannon to mean "a dangerously uncontrollable person or thing" dates to , in a memo sent to President Richard Nixon later shared in Nixon's memoirs. I have a note here saying, "the loose cannon has finally gone off," that's probably what could be said because that's what Magruder did when he went in and talked to the U.
In , Lt. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Log in Sign Up. Save Word. Definition of loose cannon. Examples of loose cannon in a Sentence a politician who is regarded as a loose cannon by her colleagues. Recent Examples on the Web Over the course of the Obama administration, Sudeikis portrayed him as Cool Uncle Joe, an aggressive, fast-talking, aviator sunglasses-wearing loose cannon known for both his loud guffaws and his inappropriate faux pas.
First Known Use of loose cannon , in the meaning defined above. Learn More About loose cannon. Why do they continually allow him to be such a loose cannon? Drafting in a team keeper league with friends every year reminds me that I'm so much more comfortable drafting with industry "experts. As of Thursday night, the brothers remained on the loose, last seen in northern France.
Has L. The lack of a cannon is a particular problem, as the F is being counted on to help out infantrymen under fire. Biden is, of course, famous for being a bit loose in his public remarks. He was pinned to the cement for his refusal to go along with an arrest for selling loose cigarettes.
Sol laughed out of his whiskers, with a big, loose-rolling sound, and sat on the porch without waiting to be asked. She was holding the back of her chair with one hand; her loose sleeve had slipped almost to the shoulder of her uplifted arm. Many of their cannon balls that fell far short of us, were collected and returned to them with powerful effect. For good or ill, the torrent of rebellion was suffered to break loose, and it soon engulfed a continent.
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