What it means
Means someone suddenly loses their temper and kicks off way harder than the situation deserves. One minute they're calm, next minute they're properly raging over something tiny. You'd use it for anyone who snaps fast and turns a small annoyance into a full-blown scene.
Usage examples
"Mum flew off the handle when she clocked the state of the kitchen, toast black as coal. Dad went—Nice one, you muppet. Whole cul-de-sac heard."
"He flew off the handle over a tiny scratch on the car and shouted at the poor delivery driver for ten minutes."
"No need to fly off the handle, it is a spilled coffee, not the end of the world, I will mop it up."
"I only asked where he'd put the charger and he flew off the handle like I'd insulted his whole bloodline."
"Boss flew off the handle over one typo in the email, proper volcano behaviour before lunch."
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Where it comes from
This one comes from an old tool mishap. If an axe head flew off the handle mid-swing, things went sideways fast and nobody was having a calm little afternoon after that. By the early 1800s, English speakers had started using that sudden, dangerous image for people who snap and lose their rag out of nowhere.
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