come to one's senses

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Idioms and Phrases

Return to thinking or behaving sensibly and reasonably; recover consciousness. For example, I wish he'd come to his senses and stop playing around . This term employs senses in the sense of “normal or sane mental faculties,” and in the earliest recorded use (1637) it meant “recover from a swoon.” Its broader present-day meaning dates from the mid-1800s. The related bring someone to his or her senses was used by John Gay in his Beggars' Opera (1727). Also see take leave (of one's senses) .

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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