She scared the shit out of me..

The ghost in the movie, The Ring, scared the shit out of me – I couldn’t sleep the whole night.

When we talk of better English speaking, we also need to know the slangs, informal speech expressions and things which you cannot say in front of your boss in a formal meeting or in a class in front of your professor.

The current phrase, “Scare the shit out of someone” is a similar phrase. First the disclaimer – do not use it in a formal setting or in a situation where swear words would be considered inappropriate and offensive. Be very careful where you use it.

Now, past the disclaimers, lets get down to the dirty details.

Let’s take a couple of examples:

1. I was fast asleep in my room last night. At around two in the night, I heard a blood curdling scream and it scared the shit out of me. I got up and started reciting Hanuman Chalisa.
2. “My God, you cared the shit out of me. What are you doing standing in this dark corner at this hour of the day?”
3. I saw The Ring in PVR Raket years ago and it scared the shit out of me. Infact, I removed the TV out of my bedroom and slept with the lights on for the next couple of weeks.

It means something scared you so bad you cannot explain it. Use it to describe an extremely great fear. It could be a fearsome sight, sound, an experience or anything conceivable. The core idea is an extremely great fear induced by something.

Let’s close with few more examples:

1. All of use cousins were lying on the terrace listening to each others stories. Saurabh narrated a ghost incident which scared the shit out of everyone. So much so that most of us couldn’t sleep the whole night.
2. Alfred Hitchcock is the master of horror. I saw his Psycho and it scared the shit out of me.