take leave of one's senses

present singular third person takes leave of one's senses · participle present taking leave of one's senses · past took leave of one's senses · participle past taken leave of one's senses

1. idiomaticTo go crazy; to stop behaving rationally.

   Rachel Spencer, have you taken leave of your senses? What do you mean by such nonsense as this?

   1920 March, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “Her Father’s Daughter”, in Further Chronicles of Avonlea, Boston, Mass.: The Page Company, →OCLC, page 43

   5 more examples

   Here I am, with my book and my pencil—the latter not pointed so well as I could wish, but when Christians take leave of their senses, who is to expect that pencils will keep their points?

   1868 January 4 – June 6, [William] Wilkie Collins, “Second Period. The Discovery of the Truth. (1848–1849.) […] [Fourth Narrative. Extracted from the Journal of Ezra Jennings.]”, in The Moonstone. A Romance. […], volume III, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], published 1868, →OCLC, pages 180–181

   She plainly said that men seemed to take leave of their senses as soon as women were concerned; […]

   1880, [Henry Brooks Adams], chapter X, in Democracy: An American Novel (Leisure-hour Series; no. 112), New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, page 256

   Sue Shellenbarger was 49, living in Oregon and writing her "Work & Family" column for the Wall Street Journal, when in the space of two years she got divorced, lost her father, drained her bank account and developed a taste for wilderness camping and ATV riding that left her crumpled up on an emergency-room gurney. "People around me thought I'd taken leave of my senses," she says.

   2005 May 8, Nancy Gibbs, “Midlife Crisis? Bring It On!”, in Time

   One of the great difficulties associated with the adoption of organic or, perhaps more appropriately, sustainable principles at the time I started turned out to be convincing others that you had not taken complete leave of your senses.

   2007, HRH The Prince of Wales, The Elements of Organic Gardening, Kales Press, page 7

   It seems to me that whoever at the Department of Transport or the train operating companies, or both, is specifying the standard of seats these days has taken leave of their senses and opted for cheapness over comfort.

   2023 July 26, Pip Dunn, “Merseyrail '777s' are OK for passengers”, in RAIL, number 988, page 60