worn to a frazzle
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worn to a frazzle
Highly agitated and perhaps exhausted due to having endured prolonged stress. I'm just worn to a frazzle after a week with my relatives. I'm so glad that they're leaving tomorrow! Looking after the kids on my own all weekend left me worn to a frazzle. We all felt worn to a frazzle by the end of the three-day seminar.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
worn to a frazzle
In a state of nervous exhaustion, as in The very idea of moving again has us worn to a frazzle. This expression transfers frazzle, which means "a frayed edge," to one's feelings. [Late 1800s]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
worn to a frazzle
Reduced to a state of nervous exhaustion. The word frazzle here means a frayed edge. It originated in America and also gave rise to to be frazzled (be nervously exhausted). The expression appears in one of Joel Chandler Harris’s Uncle Remus stories (1881): “Brer Fox dun know Brer Rabbit uv ole, en he know dat sorter game done wo’ ter a frazzle.”
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer