wing nut

See also: wingnut and wing-nut

English

Wingnuts: nuts with wing-like projections.

Alternative forms

• wing-nut, wingnut

Etymology

wing +‎ nut

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

wing nut (plural wing nuts)

1. A nut with wing-like projections to provide leverage in turning with thumb and forefinger.

   Synonyms: butterfly nut, (some designs) thumbnut

2. (slang, politics) One who advocates extreme measures or changes, especially if they hold or are perceived to hold far-right viewpoints; a radical or reactionary.
3. (slang, Australia) Someone with large, protruding ears.

Related terms

• wingnut (plant)

Translations

nut with wing-like projections

• Catalan: femella d'orelles f, femella papallona f
• Danish: vingemøtrik (da) c
• Esperanto: aletŝraŭbingo
• Finnish: siipimutteri (fi), lehtimutteri (fi)
• French: écrou à oreilles (fr) m, écrou papillon m, papillon (fr) m
• German: Flügelmutter (de) f
• Greek: πεταλούδα (el) f (petaloúda)
• Ido: aletoskrubino (io)
• Irish: cnó eiteach m, cnó cluasach m
• Manx: cro cleashagh m
• Russian: барашковая га́йка f (baraškovaja gájka), барашек (ru) m (barašek)
• Spanish: palomilla (es) f
• Swedish: vingmutter c

(slang) one who advocates extreme measures or changes; a radical

• Esperanto: ekstremisto, radikalulo
• Russian: экстреми́ст (ru) m (ekstremíst), радика́л (ru) m (radikál)

Further reading

• Wingnut (hardware) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia