give someone the shits

English

Verb

give someone the shits (third-person singular simple present gives someone the shits, present participle giving someone the shits, simple past and past participle gave someone the shits)

  1. (Can we verify(+) this sense?) (Australia, colloquial, vulgar) To annoy or frustrate someone to a great degree.
    Can you stop sending me text messages at two in the morning? You're giving me the shits!
    • 1977, Helen Garner, Monkey Grip, 2011, ReadHowYouWant, page 222,
      ‘You give me the shits,’ I stammered, sick with anger. ‘You give me the shits.’
    • 2008, Arunesh Choubey, The Migrant, India, ISBN 9788188811588, page 17,
      “You know the Aussies are shit and they give me the shits. My taxi, when they come, I say, fuck you. I never let them in. You Indians are good people. Are you here for business or for pleasure?″
    • 2008, R. Smart, Sinners Have a Soul Too, page 488,
      Women who are too damn sensitive give me the shits. Every single damn thing that comes out of your mouth is wrong. You can't say a damn thing without getting into an argument.
    • 2011, Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing, page 194,
      When I questioned if she was OK, she said, “Yeah I'm fine now Miss. This chick has been giving me the shits for ages so I put her head inside a clothes dryer. It's fine now.”
  2. To creep someone out; to scare someone.
    • 1996, Peter Rimmer, Cry of the Fish Eagle (page 16)
      This feeling of being the last man on earth is giving me the shits.
    • 2008, Philip Packham, Thompson (with a 'p') (page 216)
      He saw the driver shut off the power, and stare upwards in horror, and that really gave him the shits […]
    • 2011, Denise A. Agnew, Before the Dawn (page 47)
      Yet Amos knew Varney stirred strange sensations inside most people, something that would grab an ordinary man by the gut and gave him the shits.

Synonyms

Translations

to annoy someone intensely
to frighten someone
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Last modified on 26 February 2013, at 07:52