英和和英

名詞

wits' end (複数形 wits' ends)

1. (chiefly Britain) The limit of one's sanity or mental capacity; the point of desperation.
   • 1699, Edward Taylor, in The Poems of Edward Taylor (1989 edition), page 136:

     The Seamen they

     Bestir their stumps, and at wits end do weep.

     Wake, Jonas, who saith

     Heave me over deck.

   • 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 225036627, chapter XXII, page 29:

     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.

   • 1906, Upton Sinclair, chapter 18, in The Jungle:

     The frightened women were at their wits' end.

   • 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:

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

   • 2010 Dec. 10, Leo Cendrowicz, "Talks on Iran's Nuclear Program Produce ... More Talks," Time:

     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.

使用する際の注意点

• The form wits' end is preferred nearly 3 to 1 in the UK (BNC).
• The form wit's end is preferred more than 2 to 1 in the US (COCA).