by one's wits
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Sidney Wendall, the widow, was another early riser, as one needs be when earning a living for a whole family by one's wits.
From Oldfield A Kentucky Tale of the Last Century by Banks, Nancy Huston
And, meantime, Steenie was finding that when one has a handsome face and jolly humour, it is easy to live by one's wits, even though honour be in the mire.
From A Blot on the Scutcheon by Knowles, Mabel Winifred
"Fund," says this experienced ornament of the art of living by one's wits, "fund is an excellent word; but re-fund is the very worst in the language."
From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 13, No. 386, August 22, 1829 by Various
The period has arrived of living by one's wits; of living by contracting debts that one cannot pay; and above all, of living by office-hunting.
From Choice Specimens of American Literature, and Literary Reader Being Selections from the Chief American Writers by Martin, Benj. N.
He was a personage who first established the fashion of living by one’s wits.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 344, June, 1844 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
