Green’s Dictionary of Slang

used of a notably unattractive individual.

2009		‘Ross O'Carroll-Kelly’ Rhino What You Did Last Summer [ebook] I stort off, roysh, with a few old favourites [...] You're so ugly, you could scare flies off a shit wagon. You've a face that would stop a sundial.
2013		T. Robinson Hard Bounce [ebook] ‘Why us?’ ‘Because we're so pretty?’ ‘I am, but you could scare flies off a shit wagon’.

terrified; thus scare someone green/pink/white.

1905		Motherwell Times 25 Aug. 4/2: There was the worst noise you ever heard in your life, and I made for the house just fairly scared green.
1911		E. Ferber Dawn O’Hara (1925) 90: Mother says she was scared green.
1920		Dos Passos Three Soldiers (2007) 275: I was scared green when I first saw you.
1927		C. Coe Me – Gangster 58: Scare that newsboy pink and shut him up.
1934		Nottingham Eve. Post 2 June 4/4: ‘The door slammed, and I’ve been scared green ever since!’.
1950		L.K. Hobson Other Father 157: ‘So you’re scared green!’ Alicia tossed her head, breathing out sharply.
1956		H. Ellison ‘Johnny Slice’s Stoolie’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 84: I was scared white.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 482: Stu saw that he was scared green.
1997		M. Greenside I Saw a Man Hit his Wife 110: Scared green. Scared red. Scared silly. Scared so bad.

extremely frightened; thus used as a n. the scared shitless (see cit. 2002).

1930		J.T. Farrell ‘Curbstone Philosophy’ in Short Stories (1937) 216: Well, Bellows was jus’ about scared shitless.
1932		(con. 1917–19) Dos Passos Nineteen Nineteen in USA (1966) 479: Turns out the sonofabitch was a dick. S––t I was scared pissless.
1939		A. Bessie Men in Battle 87: When I saw Joe Ryan’s good squad coming down the line, was I scared pissless!
1939		H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn (1964) 32: I was scared shitless.
1942		H. Miller Roofs of Paris (1983) 48: Miss Cavendish is scared shitless.
1947		C. Willingham End as a Man (1952) 182: You should hear the way he’s been talking; scared shitless.
1957		T.T. Chamales Never So Few (1958) 120: He’s scared shitless.
1962		(con. 1953–7) L. Yablonsky Violent Gang (1967) 76: They were scared shitless. I just waved my blade in his face.
1962		(con. 1940s) G. Mandel Wax Boom 278: Hey, I’m scared, I’m scared shitless!
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 20: The sonofabitch was scared shitless.
1966		(con. 1958) R. Farina Been Down So Long (1972) 48: Oh, and was he shitless with fright.
1967		(con. 1951) McAleer & Dickson Unit Pride (1981) 14: Everyone’s scared shit.
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 337: I had that old fart scared shitless.
1974		(con. 1960s) R. Price Wanderers 117: The truth of the matter was that Eugene was just plain scared shitless.
1975		D. Goines Inner City Hoodlum 31: At least they’re all scared shitless.
1977		(con. 1969) M. Herr Dispatches 27: I was scared shit! I was scared every fucking moment.
1978		A. Burgess 1985 (1980) 151: Those bastards strike [...] Scared shitless of the job is what I’d say.
1981		(con. 1966) P. Conroy Lords of Discipline 107: I’d be scared shitless.
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 131: Like an actor on the stage / scared shitless in the wings but once he’s on then he’s the king.
1989		(con. 1968) P. Theroux My Secret Hist. (1990) 338: Hey, I was scared shitless.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 124: You’re scared shitless, you know this is gas chamber stuff.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 153: I put on a big front, but underneath I was scared shitless.
1991		O.D. Brooks Legs 36: I was scared fartless but glad to get it over with.
1992		I. Rankin Wolfman 31: She was scared seven colours shitless.
1992		R. Price Clockers 85: He was probably scared shit.
1993		K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 84: But I am frightened. I’m scared titless.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 169: This was what we all waited for, this was it, only this was out our league. Me I was shitless.
1998		(con. 1960s) G. Washington Blood Brothers 20: When you’re scared shitless, best to have brown pants to match the color.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 331: Chris could see she was scared shitless.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 69: Am scird fuckin shitless t’tell a fuckin trewth.
2002		D.H. Sterry Chicken (2003) 23: I’m trying to get the tough to drown the scared-shitless but [...] my attempt at badness is an extremely limp biscuit.
2004		L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] I felt humiliated and ashamed. And scared shitless.
2006		C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 171: Can’t you see he’s scared shitless?
2010		K. Richards Life 64: I was scared shitless of facing him.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] Cirello is scared shitless.
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 110: His two comarades are scared shitless.

a euph. for scared shitless

1920		Lincoln Herald (NE) 10 Sept. 1/3: Every monopolist [...] is scared spitless over the prospect of a nonpartisan league victory.
1935		W. Smith Bessie Cotter 51: He was scared spitless.
1956		Grand Bend Trib. (KS) 14 Aug. 4/2: We of the West are afraid all right [...] We’re scared spitless.
1960		Eugene Guard (OR) 14 Aug. 8/2: The teevee industry [...] is scared spitless of pay television.
1995		Des Moines Register (IA) 13 Dec. 3/1: ‘I was scared spitless [...] It was the most horrifying sight I’ve ever seen’.
1999		Guardian Rev. 13 Nov. 4: I’d posted one profoundly grateful/scared-witless response to a dinner invitation/death threat.

see knock seven bells out of under bell n.¹

to terrify.

1967		I. Rosenthal Sheeper 269: So much open love scared the boy shitless.
1977		K. Gilbert Living Black 93: The cops had been through Redfern and had scared the local black power heroes shitless.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 30: Enough to scare him shitless.
1982		H. Beaton Outside In Act II: I’ll never forget them faces. Frothin’ at the mouth. What a blast! Scared me shitless!
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 93: Threat threats [...] Enough to scare me shitless.
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 138: The same people who had scared her whole neighborhood shitless.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 241: Which is to say I shock her. I mean, I sort of scare her shitless really.

see under relevant n.

(US) to obtain or produce, usu. with some difficulty and poss. by threatening the supplier.

1843		Gleaner (Manchester, NH) 29 Apr. n.p.: The place which defies all the nincompoops or corporation lickspittles that was ever scar’d up.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 125/2: Lets have no more mishaps, for this is a ‘gift’ not so easily scared up at all times.
1866		H.L. Williams N.-Y. After Dark 33: We want to scare up some fellers of the Wooster street crowd.
1886		‘Lady Kate, the Dashing Female Detective’ in G.G. Roberts et al. Old Sleuth’s Freaky Female Detectives (1990) 15/1: Here is five dollars I’ve scared up for you. Take it.
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 76: If you had thrown a Pebble into his Clump of Whiskers probably you would have scared up a Field Mouse and a couple of Meadow Larks.
1902		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Marionettes’ in Rolling Stones (1913) 69: Miss Amy sont me to git a doctor. Lawd knows whar ol’ Cindy’d a skeared one up from.
1916		‘A-No. 1’ Snare of the Road 101: I had vainly tried to scare up the price of a Bowery flop.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 8: Put the whole binge to Jeeves and see if he can’t scare up a happy ending.
1933		W.R. Burnett Dark Hazard (1934) 64: I went broke [...] I couldn’t even scare up enough money to buy feed for my horses.
1935		E. Pound letter Feb. in Paige (1971) 268: Tho I admit the company of bro. hoff will be more entertainin’ than that of the prospective Ogden and whatever other bloody brits one can scare together.
1940		(con. 1917) S.J. Simonsen Soldier Bill 47: They did not have anybody to scare up their girls for them.
1951		M. Spillane Long Wait (1954) 69: For five maybe I could scare up something.
1961		L. McMurtry Horseman, Pass By (1997) 82: Just tryin’ to scare up a little company.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 17: I happened to scare up a publisher in New York who was enthusiastic enough about it to give me a whole lot of what you call your up-front whip-out.
1987		(con. 1968) Bunch & Cole Reckoning for Kings (1989) 230: It’s all I could scare up.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 288: I’ll [...] scare up some fresh hustles.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 184: Before McCardle could scare up some alcohol, Tony began hopping up and down.
2022		A. Kirzman Giuliani 126: She was a midlevel employee at the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, with a talent for working the bureaucracy to scare up gizmos on short notice.