Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a general term of disparagement.

1960		H. Selby Jr ‘Tralala’ in Provincetown Rev. 3 79: Tralala turned and looked at Annie and asked her when they leter out. Annie told her to go screw herself. Your the only one who would. Annie laughed and Tralala told her ta keep her shiteatin mouth shut.
1962		(con. 1940s) G. Mandel Wax Boom 17: We’re going in like a shiteating regiment.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 178: Their shoes thudded into the shiteatinbastards kidneys and ribs and he groaned.
1976		R. Price Blood Brothers 96: Do you know what anorexia’s all about? Terror. Pure, simple shit-eating terror.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 178: GI beaucoup number ten goddamned shit-eating fucking pig.
1989		Tharunka (Sydney) 3 Aug. 20/1: ‘You fuck faced shit eating cock sucking polecat’, phrase which Minister for Education Dr Terry Metherall is considering having banned from state schools on a trial basis.
1993		J. Mowry Six Out Seven (1994) 148: You goddam little shit-eatin sons of bitches!
2015		Baltimore Sun (MD) 3 June T4/1: For god’s sakes bronze a turd and put a marker on the shit-eating site!
2016		Guardian 2 Apr. 33: One of the ways the oligarch’s deal works with Putin is as a sort of shit-eating turn deal.

2. toadying, subservient.

1961		(con. early 1950s) J. Peacock Valhalla 89: The slim Pfc was grinning like a shit-eating cat.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 147: I’d rather be doing that [i.e. cleaning latrines] than be a shit-eating screw like you. Too lazy to work and too gutless to steal.
1990		Guardian 10 July 37/5: To him, life might be one long scene [...] played out with a shit-eating smile.
1992		J. Mowry Way Past Cool 180: White folks [...] lookin humble as hell an all shit-eatin sorry over what their great-grandfathers prob’ly never even done in the first place.
2011		Chicago Trib. ‘The Onion’ 1 Dec. TAB-9/2: My own actions may have earned me nothing more than the right to have this toothy, shit-eating smile punched off my face.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 13: ‘I say, “Have a good night, Captain Dunbar,” and I give him this big shit-eating grin’.

3. sly, duplicitous.

1986		C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 216: You are a shit-eating liar.
1992		J. Mowry Way Past Cool 59: The man’s face [...] wore the same, sly, shit-eating expression that Danny had put on the day Ty had caught him shoplifting.
2000		Sydney Morn. Herald 11 Jan. 6/2: A shit-eating smirk spread across Weasel’s face.