pants-shittingly

English

Etymology

From the phrase shit one's pants.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Adverb

pants-shittingly (comparative more pants-shittingly, superlative most pants-shittingly)

1. (slang, vulgar) In a manner, or to a degree, capable of causing one to soil oneself in fear; terrifyingly.
   • 2009, David Wong, John Dies at the End, Thomas Dunne Books, →ISBN, page 41:

     I convinced myself with every passing peaceful moment that things were getting better, that the worst was over. In that, I was pants-shittingly wrong.

   • 2011, David Sirota, Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explains the World We Live in Now -- Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 86:

     These guys literally tear into the house lurching toward the children with their arms maniacally in front of them — a pants-shittingly scary Night of the Living Dead reprisal that was not only hysterically antigovernment in its portrayal, but really not appropriate for any kind of movie marketed to children.

   • 2012, Danny Vittore, Back the F*ck Up!: Wild Animals That Don't Give a Sh*t!, Krause Publications, →ISBN, page 85:

     As a person who is absolutely terrified of snakes, I think I am perfectly positioned to comment on how terrifying king cobras are. The answer is pants-shittingly.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:pants-shittingly.

Related terms

• scared shitless
• scare the shit out of
• shit one's pants