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have one's wits about one

have one's wits about one verb: to remain calm, composed, focused, or aware.

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
    • Luke alone seemed to have his wits about him. He saw that there was not a moment to lose, and, gathering up his strength, dashed to the old lady's assistance.1889, Horatio Alger, chapter 10, in Luke Walton
    Synonyms:
    keep one's cool

Synonyms of have one's wits about one

Forms of have one's wits about one

third-person singular presenthas one's wits about one
present participlehaving one's wits about one
past participlehad one's wits about one
pasthad one's wits about one
alternative formkeep one's wits about one

Questions about have one's wits about one

What does have one's wits about one mean?
Have one's wits about one means to remain calm, composed, focused, or aware.
What part of speech is have one's wits about one?
Have one's wits about one is a verb.
What is the past tense of have one's wits about one?
The past tense of have one's wits about one is had one's wits about one.

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

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-have one's wits about one.ogg.

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