BS: how many ways to say.......??

Subject: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: Morticia
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 02:54 PM

How many ways to say 'lost your/his/her temper'? I can't believe there are as many as the 'drunk' thread but I suspect there might be a few colourful ones....I'll start:

Went into one

Threw his toys out of the pram

Kicked off

anymore??

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 03:01 PM

Lost it
Went off
Blew a gasket
Over the top

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 03:05 PM

Spat your dummy out
Got a cob/monk on

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: allanwill
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 03:10 PM

chucked a wobbly
had a spak attack

I'm sure there's lots more.

Allan

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 03:24 PM

Saw red
Lost IT
Went ballistic
Went postal (with apologies to all PO workers)
Went beserk
Blew his lid

Came uncorked (which has a nautical bent in that ships that weren't corked or corked well, could sink according to Stephen Leacock)

Got her dander/Irish up

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: GUEST,hilary
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 03:33 PM

Up the pole

Lost his rag

Blew a fuse

Gone overboard

Spitting feathers

Lose your cool

.........

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: Amos
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 03:43 PM

Went over the top
Started spitting barbed wire (or other condiment of choice)
Blew his/her top, cool,
Had a cow
Got in your face, on your case, all over you
Did a Bruce Lee
Went for the poker/rolling pin
Started throwing (dishes, glassware, ashtrays, plates, etc.)

Hit the roof
Have a fit
Explode
Go mad
Flare up
Storm, rage, carry on...
....?



A

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 04:05 PM

"Gassed hissown people"!

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: JeZeBeL
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 04:07 PM

Went ape

Went apes**t

blew his nut

all the rest are unprintable.

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 04:21 PM

Surely if it's a nautical term it would be uncaulked.... ? (pedant, pedant...)

thrown a hissy fit,

fit to be tied,

gone quiet,

spitting bricks (spitting feathers was always for someone who was thirsty)

doing the finger thing (a friend has a VERY indicative finger point - she points it at the object that's annoying her, wags it up and down and the other hand on the hip..... when that happens, people run before she starts!)

Going Gavin (from a colleague who is well known for throwing tantrums at work).. .could be any name but Gavin is a nice onomatopeic word.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 04:36 PM

Had a paddy
Did his nut
Freaked out
Erupted

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 05:50 PM

No, LtS, it wasn't caulking he was talking about. It was cotton "stuff" stuffed between the loose-fitting boards on a steamer. They called it corking and to come uncorked meant they weren't stuffed tightly and thus the whole kit and kaboodle could sink. It's in his Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town which I admit is full of some tall tales, but this one sounded good for explaining where the "popped his cork" or "came uncorked" came from, well...that and a champagne bottle.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: Amos
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 06:10 PM

Kat:

The cotton stuff in deckplanking is traditionally made of oakum and secured with liquid pitch, and is called caulking, but it seems easy enough to imagine it being called "corking" in a regional dialect.

Popping your cork also occurs when a bottle is left in the sun and heats up-if there's airspace inside it, or other gas--until the internal pressure exceeds the resitance of the cork's friction.

'Course I've had that happen to me sometimes, too! :><)

A

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: JennyO
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 10:01 PM

chucking a mental
spitting the dummy
flipping your lid
going ballistic
losing it
spitting chips
going apeshit
losing your nana
going beresque (variation of berserk, used by a character in an old Aussie soap called Number 96)
losing your cool

I might think of more later.

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: Cluin
Date: 19 Feb 03 - 11:12 PM

ate his own dick
blew an o-ring
took a long walk to Kingston
delivered the mail to the wrong house
missed out on the potatoes
got his Slinky mixed up with his Hungry Hungry Hippo

Okay so I just made those up as I went along. Don't have a moose, man!

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 01:43 AM

came unglued
had a hissy fit
went bonkers
had a spaz

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: Allan C.
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 02:59 AM

This is one of my favorites that might fit better in the thread about expressions from the American South; but I'll just post it here:

He was a-tearin' up the pea patch!

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 04:35 AM

Climbed out of his tree.

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: Trevor
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 05:41 AM

Got a smash on

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 05:49 AM

got pissed off
went up the wall

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: gnu
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 05:51 AM

turned three shades of red; was frothin' at the mouth; steamed; blew his whistle; started spinnin'; spun out of control; flew off the handle; took a fit; started chasin' crows;

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: HuwG
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 08:24 AM

A few expressions which crept into British usage after the last Gulf War, courtesy of General H. Norman Schwarzkopf:

Went ballistic
Hit the overhead
Is on the roof

[The "overhead" incidentally, is Naval usage, as far as I know. Perhaps its use in this context derives from the Gulf War being fought from underground bunkers, where the Naval Types in the Coalition command were those who felt most at home].

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: Peter T.
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 08:54 AM

"Took it out on Laura". yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: iRiShBaBe
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 05:01 PM

threw a fanny attack,

threw a wobbler,

jawed (enter name...) (if they took their rage out on someone)

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 20 Feb 03 - 05:24 PM

This thread should be reclassified as Folklore rather than BS shouldn't it?

steaming
boiling

(but not frying or grilling for some reason)

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: gnu
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 05:41 AM

Folklore.... hmmmmm....

In the early 1930's, there was a lad my father boxed with, back to back, on Saturday night, in the Bowrey (sp?), for beer ("prize fighting", ie, for money, was illegal while beer was overlooked). They would take on all comers and seldom went back to their neighbourhood without drink to sell. This lad was known as Grande Tete Rouge Irish, and was a size, especially compared to my father who weighed 115 pounds, soaking wet. If it was slow, he would taunt whomever he could. For instance, he would imitate an Acadian character he called Jimmy Suis (in loose Acadian French, Shaque, that would be "me"). Regarding doffing one's coat in order to fight, he would say, "I t'row my coat BOT' side da road, I come to fight me.", replete with the action of doing so. Hence, some around here still know what is meant when someone says, "He t'rew his coat bot' side da road."

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: Beccy
Date: 21 Feb 03 - 03:34 PM

Went medieval...
Went wack-o...
Flipped his lid...
Had a hypie...

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: Sam L
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 10:35 AM

Got nut-up is a recent hip-hop term. Showed one's ass is on the southern expressions thread. But there are not as many as there are for drunkeness, which has more synonyms in more languages than any other word or phrase, according to Guinness. Not sure if that's the book of records or the beer, though, so maybe it could be biased.

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: Lyrical Lady
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 12:07 PM

The cheese slid off his/her cracker...........

LL

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 12:14 PM

His/her feathers were ruffled.
He spit nickles.
Threw a hissy fit.

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: Cluin
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 01:09 PM

LL, I think you're sliding into "How many ways to say someone is crazy" with that one. At least that's how I've heard it used... like "only got one oar in the water" and "half a bubble off plumb" and Neil Young's "his dock got too crowded for a stroll".

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: Little Robyn
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 05:13 PM

Got my wild up - was that Alfie Bass - The Army Game?

Subject: RE: BS: how many ways to say.......??
From: Cluin
Date: 22 Feb 03 - 09:42 PM

"shittin' fire"