Choose the appropriate meaning from the options given for the following idiom:
To be at the end of one's tether.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Unable to deal with difficult situations because you are too tired, worried, or annoyed.
To be at the end of one's tether means to have no patience or strength left to deal with a difficult situation. A tether is the rope that ties an animal to a post; at the end of the rope the animal can go no further, just as a person at the end of his tether cannot bear any more.
Example: After three sleepless nights with the crying baby, the parents were at the end of their tether.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 2: When there is nothing more that can be said or done about something. — Incorrect. This is the meaning of end of story, not of being at the end of one's tether.
Option 3: The point at which something can no longer continue in the same way. — Incorrect. This is the meaning of the end of the road (or the end of the line); it describes a situation, not a person who has lost patience.
Option 4: After a prolonged period or a sequence of events — Incorrect. This is the meaning of in the end (finally).