lose one's temper

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Verb

lose one's temper - get very angry and fly into a rage; "The professor combusted when the student didn't know the answer to a very elementary question"; "Spam makes me go ballistic"

flip one's lid, flip one's wig, fly off the handle, go ballistic, have a fit, have kittens, hit the ceiling, hit the roof, throw a fit, blow a fuse, blow one's stack, blow up, combust

rage - feel intense anger; "Rage against the dying of the light!"

Translations

temper

(ˈtempə) noun

1. a state of mind; a mood or humour. He's in a bad temper.

2. a tendency to become (unpleasant when) angry. He has a terrible temper.

3. a state of anger. She's in a temper.

verb

1. to bring metal to the right degree of hardness by heating and cooling. The steel must be carefully tempered.

2. to soften or make less severe. One must try to temper justice with mercy.

-tempered

having a (certain) state of mind. good-tempered; mean-tempered; sweet-tempered.

keep one's temper

not to lose one's temper. He was very annoyed but he kept his temper.

lose one's temper

to show anger. He lost his temper and shouted at me.

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

But it is sometimes as difficult to lose one's temper as it is difficult at other times to keep it.

View in context

During Ramadan, Muslims take greater effort to avoid gossip or to lose one's temper. In our age of social media, I hope that's extended toward thinking twice about posting rants on Facebook or Twitter.

Sacred month for Muslims

When we moderns use the phrase, "lose one's temper," we usually mean temper in the sense of "mental balance or composure" (OED 3).