Dictionary

the pants off en · X

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) An intensifier used with some transitive action verbs to indicate that the action is performed with thoroughness, vigor, or complete success.
   • Jeffrey Vinik, manager of the $56 billion Fidelity Magellan Fund, the world's largest and most closely watched mutual fund, "beat the pants off the managers of other large funds," in the words of one analyst. 1996 June 3, John Greenwald et al., “Magellan's New Direction”, in Time:
   • American workers can outcompete and beat the pants off anybody, anywhere. 1987 September 6, Bernard Weinraub, “Reagan Tells Congress to Shun Protectionism”, in New York Times, retrieved 16 Aug 2012:
   • The Eden Project is his medium for getting that message across to the masses without boring the pants off them. 2001 March 16, Christopher Redman Bodelva, “Feast of Eden”, in Time:
   • Roosevelt not only remade America, but he also charmed the pants off everybody while he did it. 2006 June 25, Richard Lacayo, “The Making of America — Theodore Roosevelt”, in Time:
   • Their counterparts in Canada, Europe and Japan made less than half as much, sometimes while beating the pants off them in the marketplace. 2001 June 24, Janice Castro, “Business”, in Time:
   • "Dang you, Luck, if you wasn't such a little runt I'd come up there and jest about lick the pants off you!" 1916, B. M. Bower, chapter 9, in The Heritage of the Sioux:
   • He liked the water rides, but the big roller-coaster scared the pants off him.
   • "And did you also feel like you could whip the pants off any mother's son alive?" 1937 April 5, “Miscellany”, in Time:
   • "Doom 3 is just going to terrify the pants off people," says Rob Smith, editor of PC Gamer magazine. 2004 April 12, Chris Taylor, “Video Games: You Ought to Be in Pixels”, in Time:
   • Those of us old enough will also recall that Japan used to scare the pants off Americans and just about everyone else. 2010 March 29, Michael Schuman, “What Japan's Years of Paralysis Teach America”, in Time:
   • Reuters had scooped the pants off the U.S. press. 1943 December 13, “The Press: Scooped Again”, in Time:
   • "Not many people know it, but the Fuhrer was a terrific dancer. He could dance the pants off Churchhill." 2001 September 7, Richard Corliss, “That Old Feeling: Brooks to Broadway: Get Happy”, in Time:

Forms

Deriveds

beat the pants off

Relateds

someone's pants off

Synonyms

the pantaloons off