tear up the pea patch

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

tear up the pea patch (third-person singular simple present tears up the pea patch, present participle tearing up the pea patch, simple past tore up the pea patch, past participle torn up the pea patch)

1. (idiomatic) To put on a notable performance, especially in sports; to go on a rampage.
   • 1970, Red Barber, The broadcasters, page 52:

     Television tore up the entire pea patch. Radio was so big, so dominant, so powerful in 1939 that television seemed mostly talk and conjecture.

   • 1964, Stewart Alsop with Thomas Wardell Braden, Sub rosa: the OSS and American espionage, page 244:

     In the words of one who knows him well, "on a matter of principle, John McCone is quite capable of tearing up the pea patch."