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Straw That Broke The Camel's Back




One of the earliest usages of this phrase was in Charles Dickens' '' Dombey And Son '' where he says "As the last straw breaks the laden camel's back", meaning that there is a limit to everyone's endurance, or everyone has his breaking point. Dickens was writing in the nineteenth century and he may have received his inspiration from an earlier proverb, recorded by Thomas Fuller in his 'Gnomologia' as 'Tis the last feather that breaks the horse's back.'

French equivalent : ''la goutte d'eau qui fait déborder le vase'', meaning: ''the drop of water that makes the glass overflow''.