Meaning
Irrational, extremely eccentric, or overwhelmed to the point of losing one's composure. Informal. Drive someone round the bend often describes exasperation without making a lasting claim about that person; directly labelling someone round the bend can be insulting and stigmatizing. Regional use: Chiefly British; around the bend also occurs in North American English.
Origin
F. C. Bowen's Sea Slang (1929) defined round the bend as an old naval term for someone considered mad; this is the Oxford English Dictionary's earliest cited evidence, not a demonstrated date of coinage. Why bend acquired the figurative sense is uncertain. Explanations involving a particular asylum driveway, Yarra Bend in Australia, the Hudson River, the Strait of Hormuz, toilet-cleaner advertising, or shell shock lack a documented link and should not be presented as the origin.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- Around the bend
- Drive someone round the bend
- Go round the bend
Usage Examples
- The alarm's intermittent beep is driving everyone round the bend.
- By the fifth contradictory form, I felt ready to go round the bend.
- The detective suspects that the apparently respectable witness is round the bend.