What is a loose cannon?

Question

What is a loose cannon?

Answer 1

See Joe Biden

Answer 2

The term "loose canon" started when sailing ships had canons on their decks and they would break loose in a storm or something and they would go careening around the deck and you didn't know where they were going to go next so you could stay out of their way, and avoid being killed.

Answer 3

Basically, someone whose unpredictability poses a danger of some sort.  See these two definitions:

From this site:  http://www.bartleby.com/61/85/L0248500.h...

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition.  2000.



loose cannon



NOUN: Slang One that is uncontrolled and therefore poses danger: “[His] bloopers in the White House seem to make him . . . a political loose cannon” (Tom Morgenthau).

ETYMOLOGY: From the threat posed by loose cannon rolling about a warship under sail.

Another one:  http://wordsmith.org/words/loose_cannon....

Meaning:  An uncontrollable or unpredictable person, often causing damage to his own faction.

Etymology:  From allusion to a cannon broken loose on the deck of a rolling ship.

Answer 4

It is slang, meaning, "One that is uncontrolled and therefore poses danger"

The term originates in the Age of Sail, and wooden men-of-war. When a storm began, all cannons had to be securely fastened and lashed in place. A gun that broke free of its lashings would roll uncontrollably around the deck with the motion of the ship, causing havoc. A loose cannon, weighing thousands of pounds, would crush anything and anyone in its path, and possibly even break a hole in the hull, thus endangering the seaworthiness of the whole ship.

Answer 5

One that has not been affixed to the deck of a tall ship.

Answer 6

A person who is working on their own without permission or orders to do so. They are uncontrolled and usually a danger to everyone around them.