mindfuck

• mind-fuck, mind fuck

Compound of mind +‎ fuck.

• (US, UK) IPA^(key): /maɪnd.fʌk/

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mindfuck (plural mindfucks)

1. (slang, vulgar) Something that intentionally destabilizes, confuses or manipulates the mind of another person.

   Synonyms: (vulgar) brainfuck, (vulgar) headfuck, mindscrew

   • 1968, Student Union for Peace Action, Our Generation, page 66:

     The actual naked fact of Establishment power in the person of the police was a real mindfuck.

   • 1990, Total Recall, spoken by Quaid:

     Well, Cohaagen, I have to hand it to you. It's the best mind-fuck yet.

   • 1996, Christopher Kyle, the monogamist, page 53:

     This is a total mindfuck. I guess you know we broke up.

   • 2001, Mick Farren, Darklost, page 311:

     It's a mindfuck. It's just lasers and shit, like the haunted house in Disneyland.

   • 2006, Ska Child, David Harris, Skavoovee, page 106:

     The first four weeks of basic training were designed to be a total mindfuck. It started from the moment they stepped off the bus and were punished for not knowing how to stand at attention, even though they'd never been taught.

   • 2020 February 26, Will Dunn, “William Gibson on the apocalypse: “it’s been happening for at least 100 years””, in New Statesman‎:

     Trump, he observes, will “do something, and then present it the very next day as something that is going to have absolutely the opposite effect. And he knows that. It’s a mind-fuck, for want of a better term.”

• mindfucker
• mindfuckery

mindfuck (third-person singular simple present mindfucks, present participle mindfucking, simple past and past participle mindfucked)

1. (slang, vulgar) To intentionally destabilize, confuse or manipulate the mind of another person.
   • 1974, Connie Brissenden, The Factory Lab Anthology, page 10:

     Two young Canadians get mindfucked by a giant American, but they kill him in the end and then start in on each other.

   • 2003, Adam Gorightly et al., The Prankster and the Conspiracy, page 136:

     In response to all of this Bavarian Illuminati paranoia, Kerry—in the midst of Garrison's probe — decided to mindfuck Garrison all the more by sending out suggesting that he (Kerry) was an agent of the Bavarian Illuminati.

   • 2007, Jackie Kessler, The Road to Hell, page 67:

     I hated it when other entities mindfucked me.