Also: tired to death
Meaning of Sick and Tired
To be sick and tired of something means to be extremely weary of, annoyed with, exasperated by, or bored by something; to be unwilling to tolerate something any longer; to not want to hear about something anymore; to not want to see something (or someone) anymore. 1Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.,2Kirkpatrick, Elizabeth M. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Idioms. Ware: Wordsworth, 1995., 3“sick and tired.” Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. 2015. Farlex, Inc 23 Apr. 2023 https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/sick+and+tired
Sentence Examples
“I’m sick and tired of you leaving the house in such a mess.”
“I’m sick and tired of trying to understand idioms. They don’t make any sense!”
“I’m so sick and tired of the spam text messages. How do these people get my number?”
“I’m sick to death of listening to him complain all day.”
“I am sick and tired of being treated like I don’t exist.” — American Beauty (1999)
“Facts determine the case.” “Don’t give me that! I’m sick and tired of facts. You can twist ’em any way you like.” — 12 Angry Men (1957)
“I don’t know about you, but I am getting sick and tired of-of running from creditors!” — Dumb & Dumber (1994)
“What’s with you? You don’t have time for your real friends anymore.” “I don’t know, buddy. I’m just over it. I’m sick and tired of doing the same shit all the time.” — A Walk to Remember (2002)
“Mind if I ride aIong? I’m sick to death of sitting behind a desk aII the time.” “That’d be a privilege, hop in, CoIonel…” — The Hurt Locker (2009)
“The next time you got somethin’ to say, you count your teeth, because I’m sick to death of your bullshit.” — The Mist (2007)
Origin
Sick and tired dates from the 1700s while the variant sick to death from the late 1800s. Both of these hyperbolic expressions imply that one is so weary of soemthing they are physically ill or near death. 4Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.
An early use of sick and tired appeared in Sketches of 18th-Century America by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur (1783):
“I am quite sick and tired of these pretended conscientious non-fighting mortals.” 5Ammer, Christine. The Dictionary of Cliches: a Word Lover’s Guide to 4,000 Overused Phrases and Almost-Pleasing Platitudes. Skyhorse Publishing, 2014.
