Tenerle hasta el moño

/te·ˈneɾ·le ˈas·ta el ˈmo·ɲo/

To have someone up to one's bun.

Frequency

ConversationVery common

JournalismOccasional

LiteraryRare

AcademicVery rare

In English

to be fed up with someone; **to be fed up with someone**; **to be sick and tired of someone**; **to have had enough of someone**; **to be fed up to the back teeth with someone** (British); **to be at the end of one's tether with someone**

Meaning

Tener a alguien hasta el moño means to be fed up with someone, to be sick and tired of someone, or to have had enough of someone's behaviour.

Examples

Estoy hasta el moño de mi jefe.

I'm fed up with my boss.

Mi madre está hasta el moño de que lleguemos tarde.

My mother is sick and tired of us being late.

Ya le tengo hasta el moño con sus quejas.

I've had enough of him and his complaints.

Estamos hasta el moño de sus excusas.

We're fed up with his excuses.

It is usually directed specifically at a person, rather than at a situation or activity.

Used when

repeatedly annoys or irritates them
has been causing problems for a long time
keeps complaining or demanding things
behaves in a way that has become unbearable
has exhausted someone's patience

Origin

The expression is based on the moño, the traditional hair bun worn on top or towards the back of the head.

The idea is metaphorical: someone's annoying behaviour has accumulated until it has reached the top of your head, leaving you completely fed up.

It belongs to a family of Spanish expressions that use the head or upper part of the body as a limit:

Estar hasta el gorro.

Estar hasta las narices.

Estar hasta el moño.

Cultural note

There is an important grammatical distinction between:

Estar hasta el moño.

and:

Tener a alguien hasta el moño.

Both mean to be fed up, but the second explicitly identifies the person causing the irritation.

Compare:

Estoy hasta el moño.

→ I'm fed up.

Estoy hasta el moño de él.

→ I'm fed up with him.

Le tengo hasta el moño.

→ I've had enough of him.

Did you know?

Spanish has an amusing collection of expressions in which annoyance is imagined as rising upwards through the body:

Estar hasta el moño → to be fed up.
Estar hasta el gorro → to be fed up.
Estar hasta las narices → to be fed up.
Estar hasta las cejas → to be up to one's eyebrows.
Estar hasta arriba → to be completely overwhelmed.

The exact body part changes, but the metaphor is the same: the annoyance has risen so high that there is nowhere else for it to go. ```

For English speakers

Do not translate:

Le tengo hasta el moño.

as:

I have him up to the bun.

Instead:

I've had enough of him.

I'm sick and tired of him.

I'm fed up with him.