Green’s Dictionary of Slang

shit-scared adj.

terrified.

1945		‘Evacuation Song’ in Mess Songs & Rhymes of the RAAF 19: They’re shit-scared and frightened, and brassed off as well.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 68: Jim Muldoon [...] shit-scared, and yet coming in to lend a hand.
1966		(con. 1954) J. McGrath Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun II i: You’re just shit-scared, you’re like a frightened little lad, who wants to run home to his mammy.
1968		P. Larkin letter 2 Nov. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 407: Had just been to that shop in Wardour Street hoping to exchange ‘Naughty Girls’ [...] but the bloke was shit-scared: ‘Sorry, I can’t help you at present, sir.’.
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 95: I was shit-scared when a bomb went off five miles away.
1979		D. Maitland Breaking Out 199: He [...] gazed straight into Willie Crewe’s horrible little shit-scared eyes.
1985		‘Thommo’ Dict. Aus. Swearing & Sex Sayings 116: SHIT-SCARED Fear caused by anxiety or anticipation.
1987		T. Paulin ‘Chucking It Away’ in Fivemiletown 52: I was eighteen hitching through Europe / I was taken down this autobahn into the Black Forest / the dark was packed with something I felt shit scared.
1991		B. Payne Staunch 141: I’m shit-scared of a nuclear war.
1999		Guardian G2 18 Oct. 4: He said ‘I’ve got to tell you I’m a bit frightened’, and I said ‘I’m really pleased you said that ’cos I’m shit-scared.’.
2004		(con. 1980) N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 234: Though I might act tough on the outside and pretend that if my time came to get the big L, I would shrug it off, privately, I was shit-scared of going to prison for life.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 94: Shit-scared of Arthur, people start telling us.
2015		N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] [B]y ready I mean shit-scared.
2017		T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] Fall guys, too shit-scared to rat. Safe in a crew, as long as they stayed useful.