tear one's hair out

Verb

tear one's hair out (third-person singular simple present tears one's hair out, present participle tearing one's hair out, simple past tore one's hair out, past participle torn one's hair out)

1. (idiomatic) To react with extreme agitation.
   • My friend's job at a call center is so stressful he could tear his hair out.
   • "It's only a rattle," Alice said, after a careful examination of the little white thing. "Not a rattle-snake, you know," she added hastily, thinking that he was frightened: "only an old rattle — quite old and broken."
     "I knew it was!" cried Tweedledum, beginning to stamp about wildly and tear his...1871, Lewis Carroll, “Chapter IV”, in Through the Looking-Glass