Green’s Dictionary of Slang

furious, enraged and in need, therefore, of restraint.

1812		T. Moore letter May Memoirs (1857) 116/1: I dare say you are almost mad with delight and fit to be tied at the thoughts of Mr Wortley’s success.
1857		Irish Metropolitan Mag. I 377: ‘Is she very mad, Mrs Bantam?’ [...] ‘Mad? She's just fit to be tied. She’ll not stay in the house another week, and small blame to her’.
1859		Household Words 2 Apr. 425/2: I was as one distraught, as one fit to be tied.
1863		C. Lever Dodd Family Abroad II 478: When I think of it, after the letter is gone, I'm fit to be tied with impatience.
1877		Falkirk Herald 5 Apr. 6/1: Eh, mercy! I’m fit to be tied wi’ a strae [...] I’ve no lauch’t sae muckle for mony a day.
1894		Somerville & Ross Real Charlotte II 177: The old devil was fit to be tied.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Sept. 12/4: Marshall Hall’s accusers are ‘fit to be tied’ when asked for proofs [...] of their bugbear’s alleged devilishness, and seem as if they’d rather see him laid in his grave than shriven of his supposed guilt.
1918		K.F. Purdon Dinny on the Doorstep 109: She came back, double quick time, and she fit to be tied!
1922		Joyce Ulysses 719: I was fit to be tied though I wouldn’t give in with that gentleman of fashion staring down at me.
1929		D. Parker ‘Big Blonde’ in Penguin Dorothy Parker (1982) 209: The doctor, he says he could have you arrested, doin’ a thing like that. He was fit to be tied.
1934		L. Berg Prison Nurse (1964) 62: He was simply fit to be tied. The more he screamed and raved at them, the more they laughed.
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 428: Some of the boys that’ve been up all night are fit to be tied.
1943		G.A. Little Malachi Horan Remembers 95: There was a woman beyont and she after getting him to make her a churn [...] She was fit to be tied when she found it leaking.
1955		J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 277: I was fit to be tied on that Tuesday.
1961		(con. 1930s) D. Behan Teems of Times and Happy Returns 181: When Da heard, he was fit to be tied.
1976		Cab Calloway Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 126: We were fit to be tied.
1981		(con. 1920s) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 219: He was fit to be tied.
1983		R. Price Breaks 355: At first they were fit to be tied, but when my father met Tony all that changed.
1991		A. Rice Witching Hour 576: And was he ever fit to be tied when he discovered that child was gone!
2004		G. Baxter Unhinged World of Glen Baxter 7: Trevor could tell she was fit to be tied.

1. emotionally moved, either to rage or ecstasy depending on context.

1837		Thackeray Yellowplush Papers in Works III (1898) 242: She flung herself on a chair, and began to cry fit to bust.
1850		W.C. Hall ‘Mike Hooter’s Bar Story’ Spirit of the Times 26 Jan. (N.Y.) 581: I never see enny thing so funny in all my life! There was I layin’ down behind er log, fit to split.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 139/1: She came to see me once, and laughed at me fit to bust.
1862		Liverpool Mercury 31 July 4/1: Them Confederates / [...] Hearts with pent-up malice swellin’ / In your buzzoms fit to bust.
1871		E.K. Wood Dene Hollow I 299: I got a drop too much inside me yesterday afternoon – and my head’s fit to split.
1875		Grange (MN) 6 July 3/2: Dick puffed and swelled in an awful way ands fit to bust hisself.
1884		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 213: Then he blubbers out a pious goody-goody Amen, and [...] goes to crying fit to bust.
1884		Leicester Chron. 19 July 12/2: She was laughing fit to split.
1892		Graphic (London) 29 Oct. 13: What abaht my bloomin’ togs [...] you larf fit to bust yourself, but just look at my trahsers!
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 80: Kate larfin’ fit to bust ’erself.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 89: He came out on ther John’s arm, ’igh kickin’, ’n’ singin’ fit t’ split.
1907		C.E. Mulford Bar-20 ix: He cussed an hour frontways an’ then trailed back on a dead gallop, with us a-laughin’ fit to bust.
1907		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 22 Apr. 5/2: Oh, look, there’s a bloomin’ spadger in a fit singing fit to bust ’isself.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Oct. 13/4: At a pub in Little Bridge he shook a length of rope, sayin’ a rope might come in handy if a bloke wanted to steal a horse. That man was chock-full o’ jokes, ’n’ I couldn’t get along coz he kep’ me laughin’ fit t’ bust.
[1914		Hull Dly Mail 30 July 3/1: If pressing you to take some more, / the hostess says, ‘You must,’ / Don’t say, ‘I am already full, / And feeling fit to bust’].
1937		D.L. Sayers Busman’s Honeymoon (1974) 246: Standin’ there ’e was [...] and laffin’ fit to bust, and well ’e might, ’earin’ Joe Sellon carryin’ on that ridiculous.
1947		Dundee Courier 30 July 4/1: Poor bun’s yelling fit to bust.
1950		Kerouac letter 6 Oct. in Charters I (1995) 234: I was fit to bust t’see that old reprobate was still alive n’ kicking.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 194: We all fell about laughing fit to bust.
1975		D. Nobbs Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976) 64: There was a picture of a very young and handsome Jimmy [...] grinning fit to bust.
1983		R. Price Breaks 12: When he got in this place – you know, what do they call it? The Harvard of upstate New York? – we were fit to bust.
1999		Guardian Guide 3–9 July 24: Jones still always suggests a child at ease – smiling fit to bust.
2003		R. White Jordan Freeman was My Friend 2: ‘Better’n anybody in the whole village,’ said he, cackling fit to bust.

2. to a very great extent.

1836		‘The Drummer’s Stick’ Frisky Vocalist 5: So he laid them all upon the grass, / Brought forth the magic stick, alas! / They look’d at it till fit to burst, / Then had a mill which should have it first.
1837		Thackeray Yellowplush Papers in Works III (1898) 284: Before the Shevalier had finished smoothing his hat, staring at her, and sighing fit to bust his weskit.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 147: What with the vittels and drink I’m fit to burst.
1856		N.O. Weekly Delta 23 Nov. p.1 in A.P. Hudson Humor of the Old Deep South (1936) n.p.: I [...] never pretends to quit till my bag is chock full, an’ my britches pockets, too, fit to bust.
1880		‘Edward Howe’ Roughing It in Van Diemen’s Land 46: They they was a-layin’ about on their backs [...] a-gruntin’ and a-snorin’ like pigs fit to bust.
1886		R.L. Stevenson Kidnapped 194: You were running fit to burst.
1890		B.L. Farjeon Mystery of M. Felix I 147: All the while she’s eating and drinking till she’s fit to bust.
1899		Boy’s Own Paper 16 Sept. 810: We were fit to burst with laughter.
1901		‘Miles Franklin’ My Brilliant Career 258: Fancy a cove sitting down every morning and evening pulling a cow’s tits fit to bust himself.
1905		Sporting Times 7 Jan. 1/1: ‘You’ve just been sentenced to six months’ hard and you’re laughing fit to burst?’ said the mouthpiece to his client.
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘A Woman’s Way’ in Chisholm (1951) 89: Blackwood an’ wattle trees is bloomin’ gay, / Blotchin’ the bonzer green with golden dust; / An’ magpies in ’em singin ’fit to bust.
1933		N. West ‘Miss Lonelyhearts’ in Coll. Works (1975) 262: My pulling my god damed leg along the streets and down in stinking cellars with it all the time hurting fit to burst.
1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 7: Your head aches fit to bust.
1943		I. Wolfert Tucker’s People (1944) 252: Let out a scream fit to split, threw the scissors on the floor and ran away.
1988		T. Jones Curse of the Vampire Socks 16: And I sneezed – fit to bust!

(orig. US) a phr. used of something done to excess, esp. of one’s dress.

1837–8		‘The Mouthful’ in Cuckold’s Nest 13: One morn in the summer this old swell walked out [...] When he saw pretty Kitty, with looks fit to kill.
1865		M.L. Byrn Adventures of Fudge Fumble 100: When she took a liking to a man, she was very familiar, and would ‘love fit to kill’.
1887		C. Chesnutt ‘The Goophered Grapevine’ in Conjure Woman (1899) 18: One er de niggers hearn hi laffin’ wid de oberseah fit to kill.
1897		W.S. Maugham Liza of Lambeth (1966) 69: Yer know, Liza, I love yer – fit to kill.
1898		Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 24 Dec. 1/5: The widder kind o’ felt her oats, and we reeled it off [...] fit to kill.
1907		S.E. White Arizona Nights 183: Denton [...] laughing fit to kill, danced off up the beach.
1911		G. Stratton-Porter Harvester 60: You are working fit to kill, the neighbours say.
1922		(con. 1917–18) S.V. Benét Beginning of Wisdom 226: We dress ’em all up [...] fit to kill.
1938		H. Drake-Brockman Men Without Wives II i: Dressed fit to kill, eh?
1942		(con. 1890s) S. O’Casey Pictures in the Hallway 306: He came dressed fit to kill, with a fine geranium or a dainty rose fast fixed in his buttonhole.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 203: All the week I had been laughing up my sleeve fit to kill, and then last night I decided to let ’em have the king hit.
1961		J. Kirkwood There Must Be a Pony! 243: They were laughing and slapping each other fit to kill.
1969		P. Theroux Murder in Mount Holly (1999) 28: He dressed fit to kill and was very well-mannered.
1980		Eble Campus Sl. Spring 2: fit to kill – extremely dressed up.
2004		C.J. Harper My Mother’s Sin 8: My parents say that he had me with him in his car in an outfit fit to kill.