Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to defecate in one’s underclothes.

1838		L. Redivivus Paradise Lost 80: Fearing he had -- himself [F&H].
1879		‘The Two Wolves’ in Pearl 6 Dec. 24: ‘What a nasty smell there is in this den,’ said one wolf to another; ‘Have you shit yourself?’.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) IV 779: I was taken with a violent belly-ache, and ran to the closets. They were full. Fearful of shitting myself, I rushed to the women’s.
1941		P. Larkin letter 23 June in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 15: Several workmen shat themselves with laughing so it must have looked funny. Bugger me.
1956		(con. 1940s) J. Resko Reprieve 196: We damn near crapped when the motor started up. It sounded like a thousand machine guns.
1960		J.R. Ackerley We Think The World Of You (1971) 121: They’d shit ’emselves, the bastards, before they’d do anything for you!
1973		B.S. Johnson All Bull 19: When you’re in the Army, son, you don’t go for a shit when you’re on parade. You stand on the fuckin’ square and shit yourself.
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 410: They’re literally shit-scared, and crap themselves.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 6: If my old mother perused a copy, she’d most likely shit herself.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 135: Heroes couldn’t go around crappin’ themselves.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 149: I feel I’m gonna shit myself before I make it to the toilet.
2000		M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 56: The burrito in his back pocket had splattered all over his arse. It looked like he’d shat himself.
2007		W. Ellis Crooked Little Vein 206: Quit looking like you just shit yourself.
2013		T. Pluck ‘Junkyard Dog’ in Life During Wartime (2018) 203: ‘Milton, thought you were going to shit yourself,’ Stan laughed.
2021		Breen & Conlon Hitmen 103: ‘The way he is is as if he shit himself’.
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 80: [H]e shat himself and his shit hit the floor.

2. in fig. use, to be terrified, to be emotionally strained.

[1762		Bridges Homer Travestie (1764) I 129: The man that makes us slaves submit, / When Hector comes, will be besh-t; / He’ll rue the dire unlucky day, / He forc’d Achilles girl away].
1922		‘J.H. Ross’ Mint (1955) 108: He sees you stuck there like a cunt, shitting yourself, and that makes him go on.
1937		Jennings & Madge May the Twelfth: Mass-Observation Day-Surveys 2:98: The lavatory-man was complaining some woman had sat on the basin and it had given way. ‘She must have shit herself, but it’ll cost me a fiver.’.
1945		‘Lament to a Beaufort’ in Mess Songs & Rhymes of the RAAF 19: [A sight] to cause old Tojo to shit himself with fright.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 169: You’d bloody shit yourself, you would.
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 64: Otherwise he shit himself with fear.
1972		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Whoreson 258: I damn near shit myself.
1977		K. Gilbert Living Black 147: I was fuckin’ near shittin’ myself, worried.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 78: He must have shat himself when they paged him.
1991		R.G. Barrett Between the Devlin 121: ‘Don’t shit yourself. I don’t have to be at the office till lunchtime’.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 80: He shouts at a group of guys [...] who ur crappin themselves.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] I started shiteing myself [...] as well as me own bit of robbin, the supermarket had been hit by a couple of armed robberies.
1998		R.G. Barrett Mud Crab Boogie (2013) [ebook] [T]hey knew once he saw them he’d start shiting himself and try to get out of it.
1999		Observer Mag. 31 Oct. 24: ‘Im shitting myself,’ said Noel in a whisper.
2003		N. Griffiths Stump 109: Near fuckin shit meself then I did. Jesus.
2004		R.G. Barrett Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook] ‘If I had a big ugly gorilla like me stalking me down a corridor [...] I’d be absolutely shitting myself’.
2005		H. Mantel Beyond Black 289: ‘Why did you do that?’ ‘Just to see her shit herself’.
2009		R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 104: The dog [...] barking as Mandy stampedes past [...] She craps herself.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 71: Dickson [...] is still totally crappin hissel.
2012		J. Fagan Panopticon (2013) 154: Something flies up from a field to my left and I shit myself. I’m still buzzy, hyper-aware.
2015		N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] I was dead-set shitting myself.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] Asshats who think that the answer [to crime] is to arm every one [...] have never had a gun pointed at them and would shit themselves if they did.
2020		G. Armstrong Young Team 17: A kin feel Addison shitin himself fae behind me.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 193: I end up, like, shitting myself for the next few days.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 539: ‘Zelenkov gonna be shitting himself real bad,’ smiled Dr Orlov rubbing his palms.