What is "to be off the hinges"

Hinge \Hinge\, n. [OE. henge, heeng; akin to D. heng, LG. henge, Prov. E. hingle a small hinge; connected with hang, v., and Icel. hengja to hang. See Hang.]

1. The hook with its eye, or the joint, on which a door, gate, lid, etc., turns or swings; a flexible piece, as a strip of leather, which serves as a joint to turn on.

   The gate self-opened wide, On golden hinges turning.
   --Milton.

2. That on which anything turns or depends; a governing principle; a cardinal point or rule; as, this argument was the hinge on which the question turned.

3. One of the four cardinal points, east, west, north, or south. [R.] When the moon is in the hinge at East. --Creech. Nor slept the winds . . . but rushed abroad. --Milton. Hinge joint.

   1. (Anat.) See Ginglymus.

   2. (Mech.) Any joint resembling a hinge, by which two pieces are connected so as to permit relative turning in one plane.

      To be off the hinges, to be in a state of disorder or irregularity; to have lost proper adjustment.
      --Tillotson.