fit to be tied

[…] Mrs. Pepper reprimanded the master in the middle of the Park, before all the quality—Sunday afternoon, and the band playing, and the officers laughing, and he fit to be tied.

1838 April, “Ensign O’Donoghue’s Packet from Belgium”, in Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country, volume XVII, number C, London: James Fraser, […], →OCLC, page 446, column 2

A thought struck him: he would play off the old lady for her ill-breeding, and he imparted his plan to Filagree. Shortly, they were whisked into a [train] tunnel, and all was darkness. Smack! Smack! from Cromwell, and ditto, ditto, from the Muffin, as they faithfully imitated loud kissing. It was pitch dark, and the old lady was "fit to be tied." "Girls, what are you about?" Smack! Smack! again.

1849, [Sir Richard Levinge, 7th Baronet], chapter VI, in Cromwell Doolan; or, Life in the Army. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 132

Rage, frenzy and grief, fluctuated in my breast with a terrible power. I was as one distraught, as one fit to be tied.

1859 April 2, “The Reverend Alfred Hoblush Finds a New Broom”, in Charles Dickens, editor, Household Words. A Weekly Journal, volume XIX, number 471, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], →OCLC, page 425, column 2

Some girls can set around until they're blue moulded, and never a feller to ask 'em, and others the boys'll fret and pleg until they're fit to be tied, with nerves!

1915, Kathleen Norris, chapter VIII, in The Story of Julia Page, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 368

[…] I was fit to be tied though I wouldnt give in with that gentleman of fashion staring down at me with his glasses and him the other side of me talking about [Baruch] Spinoza […]

1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 18: Penelope]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part III [Nostos], page 719