nervous wreck


An individual suffering from extreme agitation or worry, as in Pat was a nervous wreck until her mother arrived at the wedding. This expression is nearly always used hyperbolically. [Colloquial; c. 1900] Also see basket case.

Words Nearby nervous wreck

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

How to use nervous wreck in a sentence

  • Three minutes in which he must reduce this stalwart fellow to a trembling, nervous wreck.

    Gunman's Reckoning | Max Brand
  • And now Lady Blanche beheld her child crushed and broken, a nervous wreck, before her life had truly begun.

    Lady Rose's Daughter | Mrs. Humphry Ward
  • I'm a nervous wreck, almost getting carted off to God knows where like that.