"wits' end" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "wits' ends",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "wits' end"
      },
      "expansion": "wits' end (plural wits' ends)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1699, Edward Taylor, The Poems of Edward Taylor, published 1989, page 136:",
          "text": "The Seamen they\nBestir their stumps, and at wits end do weep.\nWake, Jonas, who saith\nHeave me over deck.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "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:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter XVIII, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1906 February 26, →OCLC:",
          "text": "The frightened women were at their wits' end.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "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",
          "text": "Our dozen cabin passengers sorely put to wits' end to pass yesterday without cards in observance of the Sabbath."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010 December 10, Leo Cendrowicz, “Talks on Iran's Nuclear Program Produce ... More Talks”, in Time:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The limit of one's sanity or mental capacity; the point of desperation."
      ],
      "id": "en-wits'_end-en-noun-kUPMVabb",
      "links": [
        [
          "limit",
          "limit#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "sanity",
          "sanity"
        ],
        [
          "mental",
          "mental"
        ],
        [
          "capacity",
          "capacity"
        ],
        [
          "point",
          "point#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "desperation",
          "desperation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly British) The limit of one's sanity or mental capacity; the point of desperation."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "perplexed"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "US"
          ],
          "word": "wit's end"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "wits' end"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "wits' ends",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "wits' end"
      },
      "expansion": "wits' end (plural wits' ends)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "perplexed"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1699, Edward Taylor, The Poems of Edward Taylor, published 1989, page 136:",
          "text": "The Seamen they\nBestir their stumps, and at wits end do weep.\nWake, Jonas, who saith\nHeave me over deck.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "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:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter XVIII, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1906 February 26, →OCLC:",
          "text": "The frightened women were at their wits' end.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "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",
          "text": "Our dozen cabin passengers sorely put to wits' end to pass yesterday without cards in observance of the Sabbath."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010 December 10, Leo Cendrowicz, “Talks on Iran's Nuclear Program Produce ... More Talks”, in Time:",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The limit of one's sanity or mental capacity; the point of desperation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "limit",
          "limit#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "sanity",
          "sanity"
        ],
        [
          "mental",
          "mental"
        ],
        [
          "capacity",
          "capacity"
        ],
        [
          "point",
          "point#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "desperation",
          "desperation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly British) The limit of one's sanity or mental capacity; the point of desperation."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "word": "wit's end"
    }
  ],
  "word": "wits' end"
}