scrape someone off the ceiling
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]scrape someone off the ceiling (third-person singular simple present scrapes someone off the ceiling, present participle scraping someone off the ceiling, simple past and past participle scraped someone off the ceiling)
- (idiomatic) Used to describe the response to someone who is either experiencing great pain, who is very frightened, or is very elated.
- 1979, A History of Cancer Control in the United States, 1946-1971:
- He would come over to my office at least once a week and explode because somebody had been after him. And I would scrape him off the ceiling and send him back until the next week.
- 1983, Michael Skinner, USAFE, a primer of modern air combat in Europe, page 8:
- Occasionally, however, they will get a real thriller, and when the horn goes off at a particularly suspenseful point, they say you can scrape the pilots off the ceiling.
- 1992, Jasmine Cresswell, Nowhere to Hide, page 200:
- Do you think you could scrape yourself off the ceiling long enough for us to get some sleep?
- 2001, G.C. Rosenquist, The Opening And Closing Of The Moon, page 9:
- It made my inner self so excited I had to think of baseball or they'd be scraping me off the ceiling.
- 2007, James Kirkwood, P.S. Your Cat Is Dead:
- No, you'd have to scrape me off the ceiling.
- 2007, Harvard Business School Alumni Bulletin:
- I spoke with Kip the other day, and you could scrape him off the ceiling with the obvious pride and excitement he shares with Kinsley.
- 2011, John White, Parents in Pain, page 64:
- Barbara Johnson of Melodyland wrote to me about her Spatula Club. "You need a bit of humor. Parents have to be scraped off the ceiling when they first find out. So we make these little spatulas. . . . "
- 2012, Dr. Brian La Trobe, Of Diamonds and Dentistry, page 368:
- Expose a pulp or so called “nerve” of an adult tooth accidently,[sic] without an anaesthetic, and you will have to scrape your patient off the ceiling.
- 2018, Written Off, page Paul Carroll:
- Chapman, you could have scraped me off the ceiling.
Usage notes
[edit]- Usually used in phrases such as "have to scrape (someone) off the ceiling" or "could scrape (someone) off the ceiling".