have/keep (all) your wits about you
Definition
› to be ready to think quickly in a situation and react to things that you are not expecting: Cycling is potentially very dangerous in London - you have to keep your wits about you.PerceptiveUsing the eyesIntelligence
(Definition of have/keep (all) your wits about you from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus
© Cambridge University Press)
Browse related topics
You are looking at an entry to do with Perceptive, but you might be interested in these topics from the The senses & sounds topic area:
- Animal (non-human) sounds
- Describing qualities of sound
- Describing qualities of the human voice
- Noise & noisy
- Noises made by the body
- Silence & quiet
- Smells & smelling
- Sound & its properties
- Sounds made by humans with their mouths
- Sounds made by objects, movement or impact
- The senses in general
- Touching & feeling
- Unable to feel anything
- Using the ears
- Using the eyes
Browse the Dictionary
-
have-a-go hero noun
-
have/get your shit together idiom
-
have/get your snout in the trough idiom
-
have/hold all the aces idiom
-
have/hold the whip hand idiom
- have/keep (all) your wits about you idiom
-
have/keep your ear to the ground idiom
-
have/keep your feet on the ground idiom
-
have/keep your finger on the pulse idiom
-
have/keep your options open idiom
-
have/know sth off pat idiom
Browse the Thesaurus
SMART Thesaurus
Synonyms and related words:
- acute adjective (ACCURATE/CLEVER)
- acutely adverb (ACCURATELY/CLEVERLY)
- alert adjective
- antenna noun (NOTICING)
- eagle eye noun
- have an eye for sth idiom
- have eyes in the back of your head idiom
- have gimlet eyes idiom
- hawk-eyed adjective
- observant adjective
- perceptive adjective
- percipient adjective
- razor-sharp adjective (CLEVER)
- sharp adjective (CLEVER)
- sharp-eyed adjective
- sharply adverb (CLEVER)
Topic:
Perceptive
Our dictionaries
Word of the Day
ride (out) the storm
to manage not to be destroyed, harmed or permanently affected by the difficult situation you...
Blog
Read our blog about how the English language behaves.
New Words
Find words and meanings that have just started to be used in English, and let us know what you think of them.
