Where did the phrase, "That's the last draw" come from?

Answer 1

The idiom the straw that broke the camel's back is from an Arab proverb about loading up a camel beyond its capacity to move. This is a reference to any process by which cataclysmic failure (a broken back) is achieved by a seemingly inconsequential addition (a single straw). This also gives rise to the phrase "the last straw", used when something is deemed to be the last in a line of unacceptable occurrences. A variation of this idiom is "the straw that broke the donkey's back".

One of the earliest usages of this phrase was in Charles Dickens' Dombey and Son where he says "As the last straw breaks the laden camel's back", meaning that there is a limit to everyone's endurance, or everyone has his breaking point. Dickens was writing in the nineteenth century and he may have received his inspiration from an earlier proverb, recorded by Thomas Fuller in his 'Gnomologia' as 'Tis the last feather that breaks the horse's back.'

Answer 2

I would second the answer of a previous responder, that the phrase is more accurately "the last straw," and refers to the old story of a man loading object after object upon a pack camel, and ended by placing a straw upon the load. The addition of the straw created a sufficient weight to break the camel's back, hence "the straw that broke the camel's back."

Answer 3

The last straw is the final problem that makes someone lose their temper or the problem that finally brought about the collapse of something. It comes from an Arabic story, where a camel was loaded with straw until a single straw placed on the rest of the load broke its back.

Answer 4

Originally, the last straw...refered to the one that broke the camels back. The phrase was morphed into the last draw in the 1840's in California goldmining camps.

It refers to the last bit of god in a pouch. another expression from the era is Raise in a pinch also about gold.

Answer 5

Quick Draw Mc Graw

Answer 6

I read this twice. The way you layer longer story-related prose is admirable, and something I have much trouble with. You make it seem effortless, natural, but all of us who write know the opposite is true. I often measure the effectiveness of a piece by the number of TD's........Jealousy rears it's green head. Kudos to you, Mr Carney.

Answer 7

I have always heard it phrase as: "That's the last straw" and I don't know where it orignated from - sorry!@

Answer 8

No, I really think you are kidding. It's the last straw, but you knew that. Nice wordplay in both your screen name and question.

Answer 9

I think you must mean ''the last straw''. It means that is the end of options, nothing more can be done. Now, steps must be taken to accomplish something.

Answer 10

It came from a tombstone in boot hill in Deadwood, Co. "Here lies Dan Mcgraw. He was the last to draw."