Last/final straw

Origin of: Last/final straw

Last/final straw

The last straw is the final small difficulty that exasperates to the point of being unbearable. The full expression is the last straw that broke the camel’s back and sounds as if it should be biblical, but it is not. The OED affirms that it is a proverb from the 17th century and like many proverbs, the author is unknown.