> as lemmas

1908 J. M. Sullivan Criminal Slang 24 Stir crazy, prison crazy, a man whose mind has become affected by serving long sentences.

1924 G. C. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 419 Stir bugs, prison crazy.

1925 Flynn's 18 Apr. 116/2 Stir-bug, one whose mentality has been broken by confinement in prison.

1926 Clues Nov. 162/2 Stir-simple, been in so long they are losing their mind.

1929 M. A. Gill Underworld Slang 10/2 Stir nut, convict effected [sic] by long confinement.

1929 M. A. Gill Underworld Slang 10/2 Stir simple, convict effected by long confinement.

1932 ‘Spindrift’ Yankee Slang 60 Stir crazy, nervous dread of free convicts who have served a long term and fear to return to prison.

1935 N. Ersine Underworld & Prison Slang 72 Stirnuts, mentally hazy because of long imprisonment.

1939 J. Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath iv. 36 I wonder what the stir-bug I got for a cell-mate is doin'.

1939 J. Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath xvi. 241 Maybe I'm kinda stir-nuts.

1939 J. Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath xx. 342 If say a fella's goin' stir-bugs..why, you know it 'fore it happens.

1950 H. E. Goldin Dict. Amer. Underworld Lingo 212/2 I must be gettin' stir-bugs or blowing my top (going insane) altogether.

1950 H. Patterson & E. Conrad Scottsboro Boy ii. vii. 133 Howard was stir-crazy. He would go around the prison saying to anybody about anybody, ‘I kill the sonofabitch, I sure kill the sonofabitch.’

1956 P. I. Wellman Death on Prairie xxiv. 225 The latter came back after two years in prison with his mind gone— ‘stir simple’ to use a modern slang phrase.

1960 Washington Post 29 Jan. a14 A Democratic President would go ‘stir crazy’ without a depression or war to occupy his time.

1972 J. Wambaugh Blue Knight v. 74 She's..an ex-con and stir crazy as hell... She's got a phobia about jails.