to beat the pants off
3
7.7
- idiom
- Informal
:
dar una paliza
- The home team beat the pants off their rivals in front of a cheering crowd.
Examples
-
Whatever you think of the Wii, if I recall correctly, it beat the pants off Xbox and PlayStation in sales.
Blog text (16) -
He'll beat the pants off you.
-
Well, they beat the pants off us.
-
We beat the pants off them.
-
And we beat the pants off the number two country.
Blog text (14) -
I'll beat the pants off you.
-
But yeah, we're still expected to beat the pants off the Russians.
-
Now, I don't know much about basketball but I know tonight we going to beat the pants off the French.
-
As long as we beat the pants off Mrs. Slate's nephew...
Fiction book (1994) -
They could beat the pants off Ranger Danger any day.
Synonyms
53
9.9
To hurt or defeat someone very badly, often by hitting them
46
3.4
To remove someone or something from a competition by defeating them
45
9.0
To beat or punish someone very badly
36
5.5
To beat someone easily by a large amount
32
4.2
To beat someone easily in a game or contest
16
9.9
To beat someone very badly in a fight or competition
15
7.6
Hit someone many times until they are badly hurt or win against them very clearly
11
8.7
To beat someone by a large amount in a contest or game
8
3.7
Defeat an opponent completely and easily
8
7.7
To beat someone completely in a game or fight
8
7.5
To beat someone completely in a game or contest
6
4.5
Beat someone completely in a game or contest
1
9.0
Hit someone many times until they are badly hurt
1
9.4
To work very hard or to threaten to hit someone
1
9.9
To defeat someone completely, often physically or in a game, used in rude speech
1
6.7
To beat someone very easily and completely in a game or contest
1
8.6
To hit someone or something very hard and damage it
1
8.8
Beat someone by a lot
To hit someone very hard or to shock someone very much
Hit someone many times so they become badly hurt
To beat someone badly in a game
Defeat an opponent easily in a game or contest
To make someone very impressed or be much better than something
To beat someone completely or praise them too much
Antonyms
How Decisive
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verb 'beat' clearly signals 'defeat', so a B1 learner who knows the parts will likely guess a sense of winning against someone; however, the phrase 'the pants off' functions as an idiomatic intensifier (not literal removal of clothing) that marks a very decisive or humiliating victory. Because the core meaning is recoverable from 'beat' but the degree/intensifying meaning of 'pants off' is metaphorical and not fully predictable from the constituents, this is best classified as semi-transparent.
Etymology
The idiom beat the pants off probably comes from a rough image: to beat someone so hard their pants fall off or are knocked away. That's why we now use it to mean 'defeat someone very decisively'.