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🔵 A children's game 🧠 Clear thinking
marbles

marbles

8.1
The ability to think clearly and make sensible decisions
  • noun
  • /ˈmɑrbəlz/
  • Informal
translation icon : cabeza
  • YOU KNOW SOMETHING, GUSTAFSON, SOMETIMES I THINK YOU'VE LOST WHATEVER FRIGGIN' MARBLES YOU EVER HAD.

It took that much time to kind of gather my marbles.

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Examples

  • But, you know, put all her marbles on that and she did.

  • It's like, it's one thing to like play hardball when you got some marbles, you don't have anything.

  • And I, I thought I was losing my marbles, if I'm honest.

  • You can have my money, my marbles, they can have our money, they can have it, it's theirs.

  • Then then I tried this beautiful shade from those colors and I lost my marbles and amazing love it.

  • Last one for all the marbles, all the jaws.

  • I had AI was shooting a movie in Europe and just lost my marbles for a night and thought, oh, I can do one more night.

    Dr. Mayim Bialik

  • He's got all those marbles and he and he walks and he's, he defies death as as I do, so that death is always the enemy.

  • After a long day of work, I felt like I was losing my marbles due to stress and fatigue.

  • She was so exhausted that she joked about having lost her marbles during the meeting.

Synonyms

mental capacity
vsmarbles
  • Specialized
11 3.7

The ability to think clearly and make decisions

focuses on clear rational thinking rather than general intelligence
acuity
vsmarbles
7 8.1

Ability to think quickly and clearly

stresses clear rational thought rather than sheer quickness
mental acuity
vsmarbles
3 6.4

Quick, clear thinking that helps you understand and decide

focuses on clear rational thought rather than speed
wits
vsmarbles
3.5

A mind that thinks quickly and makes sensible decisions

emphasizes calm clear reasoning rather than rapid clever reactions

Antonyms

confusion
389 1.8

A time when things are not organized and people do not know what to think or do

irrationality
12 6.2

A lack of clear, logical thinking

Idioms

to pick up one's marbles and go home
  • Informal
1 9.9

To leave a group or activity because you do not get your way

mouthful of marbles
  • Informal
8.9

Speech that sounds unclear as if something is in the mouth

to pick up one's marbles
  • Informal
9.1

Leave a meeting or project because you are upset

Compounds

Elgin Marbles
1 7.9

A group of ancient Greek marble sculptures and parts from the Parthenon in Athens kept in the British Museum

How Clear-minded

sanity
123 3.3
lucidity
7 6.0
marbles
  • Informal
8.1
muddle
9 5.0
confusion
389 1.8

Surface Forms

marble singular
marbles plural

Morphology

marbles = marble (opaque) = marble + s

Although the form is the plural of 'marble', the idiomatic sense 'mental faculties' cannot be derived from the toy meaning and is unpredictable for learners.

Etymology

Marbles meaning 'a person's mental faculties' can be remembered like this: think of the small balls of the game as pieces of your mind, and if you lose your marbles you have lost those pieces. So saying someone 'lost their marbles' means they lost clear thinking or control.