the limit

Idioms  

1. The most extreme; someone or something that irritates, delights, or surprises to the ultimate degree. For example, Hiring and firing someone the same day—that's the limit in employee relations! or That excuse of yours for missing the wedding, that's the limit, or He's done wonders before but this last one is the limit. This idiom uses limit as “the last possible point or boundary.” [Colloquial; c. 1900]

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Example Sentences

With few exceptions, the limit applies to most appropriations of tax revenue, including money that lawmakers tuck away into the rainy day fund and other reserves.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 23, 2026

“The sky is the limit for Cursor now.”

From MarketWatch • Jun. 19, 2026

Tatneft declined to state the reason for the measure and it was unclear how the limit would be enforced.

From Barron's • Jun. 16, 2026

Five of the six offences were by cars calculated to be doing 0.1km/h over the limit.

From BBC • Jun. 12, 2026

This shows that, indeed, Achilles is getting arbitrarily close to the two-foot mark as the race progresses: two feet is the limit of the race.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

Related Words

• exuberance
• glut
• overkill
• surplus
• waste