English · Proverb Candidate

to be on one's last legs. (16th century)

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To be very tired or near the end of one's strength or usefulness

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Cực kỳ mệt mỏi hoặc gần hết sức mạnh hoặc hữu ích

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: a person or animal struggling to stand or walk

Examples

The old car is on its last legs and needs to be replaced

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Topics: Legs

Common questions

What does “to be on one's last legs. (16th century)” mean?

To be very tired or near the end of one's strength or usefulness Literally: a person or animal struggling to stand or walk

Is “to be on one's last legs. (16th century)” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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