wits' end

plural wits' ends · alternative wit's end

1. UKThe limit of one's sanity or mental capacity; the point of desperation.

   The frightened women were at their wits' end.

   1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter XVIII, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 26 February 1906, →OCLC

   4 more examples

   The Seamen they Bestir their stumps, and at wits end do weep. Wake, Jonas, who saith Heave me over deck.

   1699, Edward Taylor, The Poems of Edward Taylor, published 1989, page 136

   He was so eloquent in drawing the picture of his own neglected merits, and so pathetic in lamenting over it when it was done, that I felt quite at my wits' end how to console him, when it suddenly occurred to me that here was a case for the wholesome application of a bit of Robinson Crusoe.

   1868 January 4 – June 6, [William] Wilkie Collins, “First Period. The Loss of the Diamond (1848). […]”, in The Moonstone. A Romance. […], volume II, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], published 1868, →OCLC, chapter XXII, page 29

   Our dozen cabin passengers sorely put to wits' end to pass yesterday without cards in observance of the Sabbath.

   c. 1911, John Muir, in John Muir and Michael P. Branch, John Muir's Last Journey: South to the Amazon and East to Africa (2002 edition), page 138

   Yet years of talks, threats and sanctions have failed to halt the program, and officials are at their wits' end on how to wean Iran off its nuclear habit.

   2010 December 10, Leo Cendrowicz, “Talks on Iran's Nuclear Program Produce ... More Talks”, in Time