wit's end

wit's end

A state of distress that is reached when someone has no more patience. Often used in the phrase "at wit's end" or "at (one's) wit's end." The baby's been crying for hours, and I've reached my wit's end! I'm already at wit's end, so if this train gets delayed too, I'm going to scream.
See also: end
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • end of story
  • Who's calling?
  • sign off
  • light at the end of the tunnel
  • anticipointment
  • get the short end
  • put an end to
  • stick it out
  • make an end of (something)
  • cash up
References in classic literature
there is nothing which I would not undertake for such a reward." "I really know not," answered the lady, after a pause; and then pausing again, she cried out--"Upon my soul, I am at my wit's end on this girl's account.--If she can be preserved, something must be done immediately; and, as I say, nothing but violent methods will do.
I'm at my wit's end, and I don't mind acknowledging
"Let me give you the flowers!" I stammered out at last, quite 'at my wit's end' as to how to get out of the difficulty.
A gentleman of Typee can bring up a numerous family of children and give them all a highly respectable cannibal education, with infinitely less toil and anxiety than he expends in the simple process of striking a light; whilst a poor European artisan, who through the instrumentality of a lucifer performs the same operation in one second, is put to his wit's end to provide for his starving offspring that food which the children of a Polynesian father, without troubling their parents, pluck from the branches of every tree around them.
I was at my wit's end to account for her strange actions, and that Thuvia, too, had turned against her father seemed incredible.
He felt that there was an intrigue at the bottom of it, whether comedy or tragedy; he was at his wit's end at not being able to fathom it, but in the meanwhile wished to keep clear.
And then she broke out into a long shrill laugh that put me to my wit's end with fury.
At last the little money which I had saved began to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do.
A tabloid report that emerged earlier this week claimed that Cyrus' family wanted to admit her to a psych ward in order to save her marriage to Liam Hemsworth, who's already at his wit's end because of Cyrus' return to her old wild ways.
Sadly, a night spent walking the streets proves fruitless so, exhausted and at his wit's end, he calls into The Rovers, where Johnny, Michelle and Kate are having a drink.
I AM really at my wit's end over how quickly the judicial system granted the bail to Shahbaz Sharif, whereas I have been seeking my father's bail for more than one year whose age is more than 70 years.
Who: Women In Theatre (WIT's End) with a 20 year history as a Community Theatre in Kauai.
It said the minister's suggestion showed that he had come to his wit's end.
At wit's end Crystal Palace v Spurs Crystal Palace manager Ian Holloway has had enough of being the class clown and wants to be taken seriously on his return to the Premier League.
In 2010, Domino Records hired a photo-surveillance private investigator to follow McCombs and take what would be become the publicity shots for Wit's End. In contrast to his persona, his music is generous, the melodies always infectious, the production and musicianship first-rate.