Englishat the end of one's rope
Meaning: No longer able to deal with a bad situation.
Example: “After three sleepless nights, the new parents were at the end of their rope.”
Equivalents in other languages
French: Au bout du rouleau Literally: At the end of the roll
Origin: The image is an animal tethered out to graze, free to wander only as far as its rope allows before being brought up short — a real, everyday limit rather than a figure of speech at first. The English idiom is documented from the 17th century, with Sir John Chardin's 1686 writing already using "run to the end of his rope" for someone who had exhausted every excuse available to him. The British counterpart, "at the end of one's tether," describes the same tethered-animal image with a different word for the restraint, and was already close to a cliché by the time it appears in Royall Tyler's 1787 play The Contrast.
More English idioms
- have bats in one's belfry Harmlessly crazy or eccentric.
- beside oneself Distraught; very anxious and troubled.
- beside the point Irrelevant.
- bet one's boots To be sure.
- bet one's bottom dollar To be sure.
- beyond the pale Beyond or outside the limits of morally or socially acceptable behavior.
Explore another collection: Tongue Twisters
Tricky phrases to practice out loud, from languages around the world.
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A relentless 'p' plosive drill; a peck is an old dry measure of about nine litres.
- Unique New York. Three words that jam the 'y/n/k' sequence together — repeat it and it collapses into 'you…
- Pad kid poured curd pulled cod. Alternating repetition — the consonants swap at the start of every other word, which is w…
Keep exploring