out on a limb, basket case, of you. Around him, dense as a swarm of tiny insects, float tiny images of fellow adepts engaged in all manner of outré shenanigans.

A mahasiddha named Virupa did, and in a large 13th-century thangka we see him showing it off. One day when he was drinking himself sodden in a bar, a server approached and demanded that he pay his tab by sundown, closing time. “No problem,” Virupa said, as he reached skyward, froze the sun in its path and kept guzzling. In the painting we see the miracle in action, and we also see that he’s not alone. Around him, dense as a swarm of tiny insects, float tiny images of fellow adepts engaged in all manner of outré shenanigans.

“Yama Dharmaraja,” Mongolia, 18th-19th centuries. Wood, metal and pigments.Credit...Graham Dickie/The New York Times

out on a limb

Definition of

 out on a limb 

in English:

1Isolated:Aberdeen is rather out on a limb

MORE EXAMPLE SENTENCES

• Yet Eriska is so isolated, so thoroughly out on a limb, that getting there still feels like a journey to the edge of time and place.
• So I feel rather out on a limb because I know that I have to help myself through this.
• It left little time for anything else, rather out on a limb you might say.
• 
  

2In or into a position where one is not joined orsupported by anyone else:I wouldn’t go out on a limb like this if I didn’t have the data to justify it

basket case Syllabification: bas·ket case

Pronunciation:

  noun

• informal

• 1a person or thing regarded as useless or unable to cope.
  

  More example sentences
• 1.1a country or organization that is in severe financial or economic difficulties, especially one that is unable to pay its debts: sudden meltdowns—such as the financial crisis—can turn flourishing countries into basket cases overnight
  

  More example sentences

Origin

early 20th century: originally slang denoting a soldier who had lost all four limbs, thus unable to move independently.

of
prep.

1. Derived or coming from; originating at or from: customs of the South.
2. Caused by; resulting from: a death of tuberculosis.
3. Away from; at a distance from: a mile east of here.
4. So as to be separated or relieved from: robbed of one's dignity; cured of distemper.
5. From the total or group comprising: give of one's time; two of my friends; most of the cases.
6. Composed or made from: a dress of silk.
7. Associated with or adhering to: people of your religion.
8. Belonging or connected to: the rungs of a ladder.
9. 1. Possessing; having: a person of honor.
   2. On one's part: very nice of you.
10. Containing or carrying: a basket of groceries.
11. Specified as; named or called: a depth of ten feet; the Garden of Eden.
12. Centering on; directed toward: a love of horses.
13. Produced by; issuing from: products of the vine.
14. Characterized or identified by: a year of famine.
15. 1. With reference to; about: think highly of her proposals; will speak of it later.
    2. In respect to: slow of speech.
16. Set aside for; taken up by: a day of rest.
17. Before; until: five minutes of two.
18. During or on a specified time: of recent years.
19. By: beloved of the family.
20. Used to indicate an appositive: that idiot of a driver.
21. Archaic. On: “A plague of all cowards, I say” (Shakespeare).

[Middle English, from Old English.]