Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also the living shit, the shitter) constr. with the and a vb. of aggression, the essence, the absolute; usu. in phr. ...the shit out of.

1862		letter q. in Wiley Life of Billy Yank (1952) 213: If it were not for the difference in rank I would [...] knock shit out of you.
1886		q. in Jrnl House of Representatives (Ohio) 207: He says, ‘If you don’t register me, God damn you, I will knock the shit out of you’.
1934		H. Miller Tropic of Cancer (1963) 107: I know I’m boring the shit out of you.
1936		J.T. Farrell World I Never Made 123: If you ever say I told you, I’ll lam the shit out of you.
1945		in T. Shibutani Derelicts of Company K (1978) 305: I see the fuckin’ Haole chewing the shit out of the Buddhaheads.
1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 311: Anything was better than sitting waiting for the show to start and getting the shit shelled out of you.
1949		H. Miller Sexus (1969) 137: I wouldn’t wait till I was old and decrepit, until they had first hammered the shit out of me and then salved me with the Nobel Prize.
1950		E. Hemingway letter 2 June in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 698: When you finish a book it knocks the shit out of you.
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 170: Next time I’ll shoot the shit out of you.
1969		C. Sellers Where Have All the Soldiers Gone 18: He slapped shit out of you.
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 99: If I had suddenly been able to get my hands on the thieving bastard I’d have choked the shit out of him.
1972		J. Hibberd A Stretch of the Imagination (2000) 121: You beat the shitter out of me, Mervyn, fractured my skull.
1973		J. Yount Trapper’s Last Shot (1974) 172: Earl Scruggs [...] played the living shit out of his banjo.
1985		J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 193: He thrills the shit outta all the sissies and they buy him lots of drinks.
1991		R.G. Barrett Between the Devlin 130: ‘I’ll [...] annoy the shit out of that little bastard Warren’.
1993		J. Mowry Six Out Seven (1994) 320: Keep a whole family flat on the floor for hours, man . . . tearin the shit out your place.
1993		S. King Dolores Claiborne 143: You know, you startled the shit out of me, woman.
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 18: The feds had shot the shit out of him.
1998		Source Oct. 96: I wrote the shit out of that album.
1999		Observer Mag. 7 Nov. 13: It must creep the shit out of you, someone getting into your house and sleeping in your bed.
2000		M. Collins Keepers of Truth 44: That unnerved the shit out of her.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 43: He actually won the fight, punching ten shades of shit out of the numbnut dago.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] [T]hey had flogged the living shit out of me and now they wanted to kill me.
2008		D.R. Pollock ‘Fish Sticksin Knockemstiff 96: She kept bugging the shit out of him.
2010		K. Richards Life 50: Two blokes kicking the shit out of some poor little bugger.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] Shameeq cut off KG’s weak pleas by smacking the shit out of him.
2012		Chicago Trib. 23 Feb. 4/1: [headline] Female Friends Spend Raucous Night Validating the Living Shit Out of Each Other.
2015		Baltimore Sun (MD) 3 June T23/4: ‘We will not kick the living shit out of you’.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers [33]: Christ, I love the shit out of you, and I thought I’d blown it!
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] ‘Did he ever try it on with you? Or with Allen?’ [...] ‘We’d have sorted him out [...] beaten the shit out of him’.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] Someone scared the living shit out of the Russians.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Sunset’ in Broken 197: Tide goes inside to slap the shit out of Tommy Lafo.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 81: ‘[H]er answer in the meantime is to let him keep getting the shit kicked out of him?’.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 46: he mouthed off to me [...] I beat the shit out of him.
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 245: They kept the other kids in line and smacked the shit out of them if they got out of line.

2. (orig. US) constr. with the, a general intensifier, e.g. who the shit are you?, let’s get the shit out of here; usu. as what the shit...? phr.

1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 446: Hey, how in the shit old are you anyway?
1970		E.K. Walker ‘Harlem Transfer’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 55: Let’s get the shit on.
1974		Dly Press (Newport News, VA) 12 July 7/4: Who the shit cares.
1975		J. Roe The Same Old Grind 216: ‘How the shit am I supposed to do my act?’.
2013		F. Bill Donnybrook [ebook] ‘The shit happened?’.

3. the epitome, the very best.

2002		(con. 1977) R. Gordon Can’t Be Satisfied 257: ‘Guys, those [guiitars] are really distorted, is that the way you want them?’ They both go, ‘Yeah! Yeah, that’s it, that’s the shit’.
2003		Observer (London) 23 Nov. 229/1: ‘I’m the man, I’m the shit’.
2004		T.I. ‘I Can’t Quit’ 🎵 And rappers hate it cause they know I’m the shit / [...] / People hate it when you better than them.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] That [i.e. methamphetamine] is the shit. That is the fucking shit.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] A cop on these streets [...] you’d better be arrogant. There are people up here, they see you don’t think you’re the shit, they will kill you.
2018		‘Aidan Truhen’ Price You Pay 8: You just said [...] the Cardinal thinks this stuff [i.e. a sample of coffee] is The Shit – or it’s just shit, or whatever.