pants off, the
the pants off (of)
slang Thoroughly or completely; to a huge or great degree. This young team is beating the pants off the veteran squad.
See also: off, pant
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
pants off, the
This phrase is used to intensify the meaning of verbs such as bore or charm or kid or scare or talk . For example, That speech bored the pants off us, or It was a real tornado and scared the pants off me. Playwright Eugene O'Neill used it in Ah, Wilderness! (1933): "I tell you, you scared the pants off him," and Evelyn Waugh, in A Handful of Dust (1934), had a variation, "She bores my pants off." [Colloquial; early 1900s] Also see bore to death; beat the pants off.
See also: pant
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
- beat (one's) pants off
- be off for (something)
- be off for sth
- (I've) got to take off
- browned off
- breeze off
- auction off
- blast off for (somewhere)
- blast off for somewhere
- (Now) where was I?