noun
marbles
MAR-buhlz/mˈɑrbʌlz/
A person's sanity or mental faculties.
The thoughtful puzzle solver clearly hasn't lost any marbles.
Etymology
Marble supplied the name of the stone playing balls. The sense 'sanity' may instead derive from earlier slang marbles, 'personal effects,' described as a corrupt translation of French meubles, 'furniture'—mental faculties understood as possessions one can lose.
In context
that is how i babystep through this ordeal without despairing or losing my marbles pain strikes me but i will let the pain go
More examples
- She wondered whether the absurd plan meant he had lost his marbles.
- The old expression uses marbles to mean mental faculties.
- He insisted that he still had all his marbles.
Forms
marbles
Similar words
- wits
- Another informal term for mental faculties.
- sanity
- Sanity is neutral rather than humorous or idiomatic.