英和和英

名詞

wits' end (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) Limit of one's sanity or mental capacity; point of desperation.
   • 1699, Edward Taylor, in The Poems of Edward Taylor, 1989, page 136

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

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

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

   • 1956, Donald Elder, Ring Lardner: A Biography, page 386

     "Comic Faces Starvation as Gag Men Near Wits' End", The New Yorker, July 8

使用する際の注意点

Note that the apostrophe is after the s of wits, meaning abilities, not after wit, being one's humour or intelligence.