Learn English – n English equivalent for the Swedish expression “the droplet that caused the beaker to overflow”

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In Swedish, the expression "det var droppen som fick bägaren att rinna över", directly translated to "the droplet that caused the beaker to overflow", is used to express that enough is enough. Is there a similar expression in English?

Best Answer

Try this:

The straw that broke the camel’s back.

This write-up traces the saying’s history back to long ago, noting that Seneca once wrote in “On Despising Death” (Letter XXIV):

Counting even yesterday, all past time is lost time; the very day which we are now spending is shared between ourselves and death. It is not the last drop that empties the water-clock, but all that which previously has flowed out; similarly, the final hour when we cease to exist does not of itself bring death; it merely of itself completes the death-process.

And the online thesaurus seems to think that “match in the powder barrel” is a synonym for “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.

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