to lose one's wits
- idiom
:
perder la cabeza
- When she saw the car crash, she nearly lost her wits with shock.
Examples
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You see, the queen thinks that you've lost your wits but I think your wits are the one thing you still have about you.
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If I say that I have two samples of handwriting, the same handwriting, three centuries apart, everyone will think, poor Geoffrey's lost his wits poring over old legends.
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Joe, have you lost your wits?
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And you lost your wits when he looked at you?
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And so one night, I lost my wits, I think... and put her out on the high road.
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Madam, have you lost your wits?
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"I have enclosed a photograph to prove to you that I have not lost my wits.
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Faith, e'en by losing his wits.
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I've lost my wits, my place.
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I've not lost my wits, but you might have stepped in it.
Synonyms
6
7.0
To not be able to think clearly because you are very tired, angry, or confused
1
6.4
To become very upset and unable to think clearly
1
6.7
Become very anxious, confused, or upset and act in a way that does not make sense
Act in a confused or uncontrolled way because of strong emotion
To feel so shocked for a short time that you cannot think or speak
To start behaving in a strange and out of control way
Antonyms
How Clearheaded
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is directly built from 'lose' (to cease to have) + 'one's wits' (one's capacity for clear thought), so a learner who knows those words can infer that it means to lose the ability to think clearly. The possessive 'one's' is grammatical framing only and the compositional pattern is cross-linguistically common, making the MWE immediately understandable to B1 learners.
Etymology
Lose one's wits may come from the idea that wits are like small inner lights or quick thoughts, and to lose them is like the lights going out. That's why it means 'to become very confused or unable to think clearly'.