all-overs n.
1. feelings of irritation.
Speech in Mississippi 70: All-overs, a term employed by all classes to mean a feeling of extreme annoyance or vexation; as, ‘That man is so trifling it gives me the all-overs to look at him’ [OED]. |
2. nervous or apprehensive feelings.
Mystery of Edwin Drood (1974) 267: But we’re out of sorts for want of a smoke. We’ve got the all-overs, haven’t us, deary? But this is the place to cure ’em in; this is the place where the all-overs is smoked off! | ||
‘O. Thanet’ in St Nicholas Nov. 50/1: I jes’ take the all-overs every time I see paw getherin’ his gun ter go out [OED]. | ||
DN III:ii 124: all-overs, n. A fright, chill of terror: ‘It give me the all-overs to just think of it’. | ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in||
Cross Creek 137: I came to Cross Creek with such a phobia against snakes that a picture of one in the dictionary gave me what Martha calls ‘the all-overs’. |