dysfunctional
/dɪsˈfʌŋkʃənl
/adjective
1Not operating normally or properly: the telephones are dysfunctional...
- Did your lab reach the stage where it was quite dysfunctional in its operation?
- It is not just the athletes themselves who are growing old with dysfunctional bodies and disturbed minds.
- There is evidence linking dysfunctional breathing with respiratory disorders.
1.1Unable to deal adequately with normal social relations: an emotionally dysfunctional businessman dysfunctional families...
- She herself says that her dysfunctional family has actually weirdly helped her career.
- In therapy-speak, they call them dysfunctional families, you know.
- I also want to take the time to thank you, my dear readers who are like my extended dysfunctional family.
Derivatives
dysfunctionality
- Here Cohn Rhodes revisits Pollock's tragic "abiding dysfunctionality," which led to his death in a drunken car crash.
- The UN system's dysfunctionality was not, at bottom, a legal problem.
- Like every other significant rock performer, his act was anchored in dysfunctionality.
dysfunctionally
- Maybe they should, as a reminder that our system will continue to function dysfunctionally until we do something about it.
- No one can predict with surety that someone will never act dysfunctionally again.
- Officers unlucky enough to be assigned to joint duty got orders out of it as soon as they could; their tours of duty became dysfunctionally short.