The last straw (that broke the camel’s back)

What does the « The last straw (that broke the camel’s back) » idiom mean?

Have you ever had one of those days when everything goes wrong, and then you spill coffee on yourself — and that’s it, game over? Yep, that’s your last straw moment.

I find this idiom both funny and dramatic when you imagine it literally. A poor camel already loaded to the limit, and then… one last tiny straw collapses everything! It came up during a chat with a friend who said he could handle no more at work. That last straw had finally broken his patience.

When you say “it’s the last straw” or “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” you mean a final small irritation, problem, or burden that makes a situation unbearable. It’s not that the last thing was huge, it’s that it came after so many others that you simply can’t take any more.

Why do we use this colloquialism? Where does it come from?

The full version of the phrase is “the last straw which breaks the camel’s back.” According to The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, it’s considered a “mid-17th-century proverb,” although there’s no solid written proof from that period. The earliest known citation actually comes much later, from The Edinburgh Advertiser in May 1816, where it appears in a political comment about taxation:

“Mr. Brougham remarked, that if it [a tax on soap] were only 3d. a head… yet straw upon straw was laid till the last straw broke the camel’s back.”

Some experts believe the phrase may have evolved from an older saying, “it is the last feather that breaks the horse’s back,” also recorded in The Edinburgh Advertiser in 1829. And by 1843, both metaphors were humorously blended in The Southport American:

“And finally, the ‘feather which breaks the camel’s back’ having been added to Sir Walter’s burden…”

So, while the expression feels ancient, it’s actually a relatively modern metaphor. A vivid image showing how one small extra weight, after many others, can finally cause collapse.

Examples to use this phrase…

• When they asked me to work another weekend, it was the last straw — I quit the next day.
• The constant delays were annoying, but losing my luggage was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
• She’d been patient for months, but his forgetting her birthday was the last straw.

You can also say: Breaking point, tipping point, the final nail in the coffin, the final blow, the point of no return, I’ve had enough, That’s it!, My patience has run out, I’m at my limit.

Translation in French: C’est la goutte d’eau qui fait déborder le vase (It’s the drop of water that makes the vase overflow)