kick in the pants, a

1. Also, a kick in the teeth . A humiliating setback or rebuff. For example, That rejection was a real kick in the pants , or That review was a kick in the teeth . A third, vulgar variant of these colloquial terms is a kick in the ass . Versions of this last expression— kick in the breech, kick in the behind —have been used since the early 1800s.

2. A cause of enjoyment, as in That show was a real kick in the pants . This meaning is virtually the opposite of def. 1 and can be differentiated from it only by the context. [1960s]

Example Sentences

Sam, in particular, occasionally comes uncomfortably close to a being a caricature, one of those bespectacled, emasculated types who need a kick in the pants, a sock in the jaw, so they can man up.

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The company, founded in 1924 to outfit aristocrats with a penchant for racing motorcycles and flying open-cockpit planes, got a kick in the pants a year ago when its management changed hands and promptly poached Martin Cooper of Burberry as its creative director.

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