English

Adjective

all there

1. (idiomatic) Mentally competent; not absent-minded or insane.

   Is he all there?

   I don't think he's all there...

   I think he's not all there...

   • 1885, Amelia E. Barr, Jan Vedder's Wife, ch. 1:

     A suspicion that “he was not all there,” and therefore “one of God’s bairns,” had insured him, during his long orphanage, the food, and clothes, and shelter, necessary for life; but no one had given him love.

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, Episode 15:

     His submission is that he is of Mongolian extraction and irresponsible for his actions. Not all there, in fact.

   • 2011, Julie Keith, The Devil Out There, ISBN 9780307369710, Part 1 (Google preview):

     [S]he smiled at me in a such a silly way, I thought to wonder if she was all there.

2. Used other than as an idiom: see all,‎ there.

Usage notes

• Often used in the negative construction, "not all there", to mean mentally incompetent, of low intelligence, or absent-minded.

Translations