Where did the expression "fit to be tied" come from and what does it mean?

Answer 1

Fit to be tied

Meaning: To be very angry, livid.
Example: When his wife saw the car he'd bought she was fit to be tied.

Origin: "Tied" in this case refers to being bound as in a straight jacket. The need for being tied is to control ones actions to prevent from acting on the anger.

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Re: Fit to be tied

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Posted by Victoria S Dennis on May 13, 2005 at 07:56:03:
In Reply to: Fit to be tied posted by Steve Polansky on May 13, 2005 at 07:07:39:

: What is the origin of "fit to be tied"? Context suggests it means very angry or agitated, but I would like to know its origin. Eligibility for the longarmed restraint suit used for violent mental patients?

:: Cassell's Dictionary of Slang says that it is mid-19th century in origin. Cassell just says that the phrase evokes someone "so hysterically furious that they need to be tied down". However, given that in the mid-19th century the straitjacket was in common use for restraining mental patients, I think it's very likely that that is indeed what the phrase is meant to imply.

Answer 2

Origin in the mid-19th centyry:
People who had attacks of furor and committed acts of violence where treated as insane patients with a dissociative state of mind, and for that they qualify to be put into a straight jacket. They were transfered to an asylum, where the treatment used to control and restrain these so call maniac were straight jackets and seclusion.
So we can say that "Fit to be tied"
"Tied" refers to being bound as in a straight jacket. The need for being tied is to control ones actions to prevent from acting on the anger.
Fit to be tied
Meaning: To be very angry, livid, exasperated, to be extremely upset, and/or agitated.
(agitated, angry, enraged, fuming, furious, incensed, indignant, infuriated, mad, upset).
Example: He bought a ticket for that specific flight, so therefore he was really fit to be tied after the airline agent refused to issue him a boarding pass.

Definition Straitjacket: Or strait-jacket or strait jacket. 1. A garment shaped like a jacket with long sleeves the ends of which can be tied behind the back to restrain a violently disturbed person, as in a psychiatric in-patient unit, so that the person does not injure themselves or anyone else. (The straitjacket has also seen use in prisons, escapology, and sexual bondage.) 2. By extension, anything that is constricting, restricting, very limiting, confining. Sometimes spelled straightjacket, straight-jacket, or straight jacket. However, strait means narrow or confined so that straitjacket is preferable. Also called a camisole.

Answer 3

It comes from the fact that when someone is extremely angry or excited, they'll jump up and down and flail around - and the only way to "control" them would be to "tie them up".

Answer 4

angry strumpet when she didn't get paid