screaming abdabs

English

Alternative forms

• screaming habdabs

Noun

screaming abdabs pl (plural only)

1. (British, slang) A state of extreme nervousness.
   • 1959, Alan Sillitoe, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, page 34:

     ...not noticing the sud smells anymore or belts over my head that gave me the screaming ab-dabs when I first came in the factory at fifteen...

   • 1971, New Scientist, page 80, by the EBSCO Publishing Firm,

     Meanwhile, down the road a piece, another British firm has had an attack of the abdabs.

   • 1986, Anthony Burgess, The Pianoplayers, page 201:

     ... Robert played all the time on his dummy keyboard and it drove Edna near mad, gave her the screaming abdabs as she put it.

   • 2003, Marian Babson, The Cat Who Wasn't a Dog:

     ‘This place doesn't ‘aif give me the screaming ‘abdabs.’ ‘And how!’ I agreed. All those small creatures that had once vibrated with life, now frozen ...

   • 2004, Mary Stewart, This Rough Magic:

     It's a nice night, and I’da darned sight rather take a walk out than see you work yourself into a fit of the screaming abdabs. I don't blame you, ...