pants off, the

Idioms  

1. This phrase is used to intensify the meaning of verbs such as. 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.

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Example Sentences

This is a team that just swept the pants off the Dodgers, the Diamondbacks’ 4-2 victory Wednesday night at Chase Field in Phoenix finishing a three-games-to-none clinching of their National League Division Series and completing the most brutal of broom bashings.

From Los Angeles Times

“Gosh, no wonder you beat the pants off the rest of us,” said Dee, laughing.

From Literature

We hope people and organizations who still believe in good government sue the pants off the state, and use the courts to their full advantage to overturn these rotten-to-the-core laws.

From Washington Times

“It would scare the pants off the Mayor and leading businessmen.”

From Literature

Apple is beating the pants off the rest of the industry in the speed of the processor that’s the brain of the phone.

From Washington Post