I had never come across this expression before, but I’m always delighted when someone brings a new piece of colourful language to my attention. None of my conventional dictionaries covers this word, nor does either of my slang dictionaries. Wikipedia reveals that Froot Loops are a kind of brightly coloured breakfast cereal sold in many countries (but not the UK). Fruit loops, meanwhile, are multicoloured rings worn to symbolize gay pride. Wikipedia gives several sexual meanings for the term fruit loops, plus one which I think is the one being used here.
A fruitloop can also refer to a person considered crazy.
A quick search of the Macmillan corpus reveals that the word is extremely infrequent (which is one reason why it would not be in the Macmillan English Dictionary: there are a mere 19 citations for it). Some are a bit too rude to print, but here are a couple:
Why am I a fruitloop and not others?
To me, he remains fascinating, but reads increasingly like a complete fruit-loop.
The corpus citations bear out the meaning that is suggested by the context of your quotation. However, unlike the other examples I have found, the writer you quote is using it as an adjective. I presume that s/he means that the law seems crazy. There are any number of other terms that could have been used, including nuts, crazy, bonkers, mad, and so on.
Interestingly enough, I could have guessed the meaning of this word not only from the context but also from two other rather similar words. One is fruitcake, which is used to refer to a crazy person; the other is loopy, which means ‘crazy’; both are in MED.
I would just point out, though, that all these terms should be used with caution, as many people find them offensive because of the derogatory view of mental illness they imply. |