Word.ws English Dictionary

had one's wits about one

had one's wits about one is the simple past and past participle of have one's wits about one.

Meaning of have one's wits about one

Verb

have one's wits about one (third-person singular simple present has one's wits about one, present participle having one's wits about one, simple past and past participle had one's wits about one)

  1. (idiomatic) To remain calm, composed, focused, or aware.
    • He was confused, half elated, half disappointed, and had not his wits about him.1869, Anthony Trollope, chapter 3, in Phineas Finn
    Synonyms:
    keep one's cool

Questions about had one's wits about one

What is had one's wits about one the simple past and past participle of?
Had one's wits about one is the simple past and past participle of have one's wits about one.

Words near had one's wits about one in the dictionary

  1. had one's way
  2. had one's way with
  3. had one's Weetabix
  4. had one's whole life ahead of one
  5. had one's wig snatched
  6. had one's wits about one
  7. had one's work cut out
  8. had one's work cut out for one
  9. had other fish to fry
  10. had other ideas
  11. had ought

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: had one's wits about one (page history and authors); have one's wits about one (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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