The word
shit (also
shite in
British and
Hiberno-English) is considered
profanity and is usually avoided in formal speech.
Minced oath substitutes for the word
shit in English include
shoot,
shucks,
sugar, and the
euphemistic backronym,
Sugar, Honey, Ice(d) Tea. In the word's literal sense, it has a rather small range of common usages. An unspecified or collective occurrence of
feces is generally
shit or
some shit; a single deposit of feces is sometimes
a shit or
a piece of shit; and to defecate is
to shit or
to take a shit. While it is common to speak of shit as existing in
a pile,
a load,
a hunk, and other quantities and configurations, such expressions flourish most strongly in the figurative. When uttered as an exclamation or
interjection,
shit may convey astonishment or a feeling of being favorably impressed or disgusted. Similar utterances might be
damn!,
wow! or
yuck!.
Piece of shit may also be used figuratively to describe a particularly loathsome individual, or an object that is of poor quality ("this
car is a
piece of shit", often abbreviated to "P.O.S."). One study published in 2017 argued that "shit studies" is a cross-disciplinary meta-field of rhetorical inquiry about human communication and reasoning. The authors explained, "rhetorical studies has theorized 'shit' in terms of the communication of transformation, style, and textual relations," particularly in relation to claims of expertise to topics such as "anti-semitism" and "wine-tasting." They conclude that
bullshit speech is one-sided discourse that is difficult to penetrate because it contains "ideological barriers to the expectation of mutuality," working to deflect critical responses.
Vague noun Shit can be used as a generic mass noun similar to
stuff; for instance,
This show is funny (as) shit or
This test is hard (as) shit, or
That was stupid shit. These three usages (with
funny,
hard, and
stupid or another
synonym of
stupid) are heard most commonly in the United States. Using "as" denotes a subtle change in the meaning of the expression; however, the overall intent is basically the same. In the expression
Get your shit together!, the word
shit can refer either to one's wits or composure or to one's things, gear, etc. ''He doesn't have his shit together'' means that his affairs are disordered, reflecting not bad luck or forces beyond his control, but his personal shortcomings. To
shoot the shit is to have a friendly but pointless conversation, as in "Come by my place some time and we'll shoot the shit." A
shithole is any unpleasant place to be, much like a hellhole. This usage originates from a reference to a
pit toilet. A
crock of shit is something (a situation, explanation, argument, etc.) that is nonsense or fabricated as a deception or evasion; i.e. bullshit. Often abbreviated simply as
crock. Example: "You expect me to believe that ?? What a crock!" The phrase
built like a brick shithouse is used in the United States to compliment a curvaceous woman, but in other English-speaking countries to compliment men with athletic physiques. This meaning originates from the observation that most shithouses are rather ramshackle affairs constructed of plywood or scrap sheets of steel.
The shitter is a slang term for a toilet, and can be used like the phrase
...down the toilet to suggest that something has been wasted. Example: "This CD player quit working one friggin' week after I bought it, and I lost the receipt! Twenty bucks right down the shitter!"
Shit on a shingle is U.S. military slang for
creamed chipped beef on toast. In polite company, this can be abbreviated as
SOS.
Trouble Shit can be used to denote trouble, by saying one is in
a lot of shit or
deep shit (a common euphemism is
deep doo-doo). A
shitstorm would be quite a lot of trouble happening all in one place at one time. It's common for someone to refer to an unpleasant thing as
hard shit (''You got a speeding ticket? Man, that's some hard shit
), but the phrase tough shit
is used as an unsympathetic way of saying too bad
to whoever is having problems (You got arrested? Tough shit, man!
) or as a way of expressing to someone that they need to stop complaining about something and cope with it instead (Billy: I got arrested because of you!
Tommy: Tough shit, dude, you knew you might get arrested when you chose to come with me.
) Note that in this case, as in many cases with the term, tough shit'' is often said as a way of pointing out someone's fault in his/her own current problem. It's also common to express annoyance by simply saying
Shit. A
shitload of something is a large quantity, especially something unpleasant or disgusting.
The boss dumped a shitload of extra work for me this week. A
shit sandwich is something (like a situation or state of affairs) unpleasant made triflingly more palatable by packaging it in things less unpleasant, as rotten meat sandwiched in bread. The term shit sandwich originates from an old joke that goes: "Life is a shit sandwich. The more bread (money) you got, the less shit you have to eat."
Up shit creek or especially
Up shit creek without a paddle describes a situation in which one is in severe difficulties with no apparent means of solution (this is simply a profane version of the older saying "up the creek without a paddle", profanity added for emphasis or humor).
Shit happens means that bad happenings in life are inevitable. This is usually spoken with a sigh or a shrug, but can be spoken derisively to someone who complains too often about his ill fortunes, or in an irritating manner.
When the shit hits the fan is usually used to refer to a specific time of confrontation or trouble, which requires decisive action. This is often used in reference to combat situations and the action scenes in movies, but can also be used for everyday instances that one might be apprehensive about. ''I don't want to be here when the shit hits the fan!
indicates that the speaker is dreading this moment (which can be anything from an enemy attack to confronting an angry parent or friend). In polite society, it is often reduced to "when it hits the fan". He's the one to turn to when the shit hits the fan
is an indication that the person being talked about is dependable and will not run from trouble or abandon their allies in tough situations. The concept of this phrase is simple enough, as the actual substance striking the rotating blades of a fan would cause a messy and unpleasant situation (much like being in the presence of a manure spreader). Whether or not this has actually happened, or if the concept is simply feasible enough for most people to imagine the result without needing it to be demonstrated, is unknown. Another example might be the saying shit rolls downhill'', a metaphor suggesting that trouble for a manager may be transferred to the subordinates. There are a number of anecdotes and jokes about such situations, as the imagery of these situations is considered to be funny. This is generally tied-in with the concept that disgusting and messy substances spilled onto someone else are humorous. For someone to be described as
shitfaced means that person is essentially incapacitated by alcoholic intoxication (i.e. in a thoroughly drunken state).
Displeasure Shit can comfortably stand in for the terms
bad and
anything in many instances (
Dinner was good, but the movie was shit. ''You're all mad at me, but I didn't do shit!
). A comparison can also be used, as in Those pants look like shit
, or This stuff tastes like shit
. Many usages are idiomatic. I'm shit out of luck
usually refers to someone who is at the end of their wits or who has no remaining viable options. In polite company the acronym SOL
is commonly substituted for this. That little shit shot me in the
ass, suggests a mischievous or contemptuous person. Euphemisms such as crap'' are not usually used in this context. The exclamations
oh shit! and
aw shit! are used to express displeasure or embarrassment (sometimes facetiously) with oneself when one makes a mistake, especially a stupid or avoidable mistake. When used to comment on the actions of someone else, they can take on a more humorous quality if the mistake does not result in serious consequences.
Oh shit! is also a reflexive expression of horror or terror, as when witnessing or being involved in a life-threatening situation (for example, a vehicle accident). The term
piece of shit is generally used to classify a product or service as being sufficiently below the writer's understanding of generally accepted quality standards to be of negligible and perhaps even negative value. The term
piece of shit has greater precision than
shit or
shitty in that
piece of shit identifies the low quality of a specific component or output of a process without applying a derogatory slant to the entire process. For example, if one said "The youth orchestra has been a remarkably successful initiative. The fact that the orchestra's recent rendition of Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony in B minor was pretty much a piece of shit should not in any way detract from this." The substitution of
shit or
shitty for
pretty much a piece of shit would imply irony and would therefore undermine the strength of the statement. The phrase "(I don't) give a shit" can be used when one does not care about something, or has a passive attitude toward said thing, as it denotes
indifference. In context, one can say: "You're offended? Well, I don't give a shit!" or "You're telling me? Go find somebody who gives a shit." President
Richard Nixon said to aide
H.R. Haldeman while being tape recorded in the
Oval Office, "I don't give a shit about the lira." He meant he was too busy managing the
Watergate affair to consider a crisis in the Italian monetary system. The
shit list is a category of people who are in ill favor with some individual or group of people, perhaps as the managers of a company, and likely to be the targets of special treatment. The phrase "take shit" means to receive bad or frivolous treatment from someone. Such an abused person might say "I'm not taking any more of your shit!" to indicate that they will no longer tolerate such treatment.
Whale shit is sometimes used to describe a person who inspires displeasure or disgust, as in: "You're lower than whale shit at the bottom of the ocean!" “You can’t polish shit” is a popular aphorism roughly equivalent to "putting
Lipstick on a pig" (although "a turd" is more commonly used). However, the TV show
Mythbusters showed that a person can, in fact, polish a turd.
Dominance Shit can also be used to establish social superiority over someone else. The most common gibe is
eat shit! (cf
coprophagy) expressing contempt. Some other personal word may be added such as
eat my shit implying truly personal connotations. As an aside, the above is actually a contraction of the phrase
eat shit and die!. It is often said without commas as a curse; they command the other party to perform exactly those actions in that order. However, the term was originally
Eat, Shit, and Die naming the three most basic things humans have to do, and it is common among
soldiers. The phrase ''You ain't shit'', expresses an air of intimidation over the addressee, expressing that they mean nothing or are worthless.
Hot shit can be a reference to a matter or thing of supreme importance or urgency ("This report is really hot shit!"). It can be used in adjectival form: "This memo's shit-hot!".
Hot shit can also refer to a person who either overestimates his own worth or ability, or is highly estimated by others ("He thinks he's some hot shit!" or "He's one hot shit!"). In polite company the euphemism
hotshot may be substituted when referring to a person. A speaker may show dominance through arrogance using the phrase ''His shit don't stink
. Its grammatical incorrectness highlights the self-importance of the referent relative to the speaker; though His shit does not stink
may come across as being more emphatic due to the mixed diction between its grammatical correctness and the vulgarity of shit''. This phrase conveys the haughtiness of the referent and that he considers himself beyond reproach. For example: "Those pompous assholes in Finance are the ones who ruined the company – their shit don't even stink!" A variation on this theme might be: "Everything he shits smells just like roses!" The expression
shitkicker can be used as a
pejorative for a menial worker or other low class person. `within the world of (ii) a performer or fan of country-and-western music. The term shitkicker may be substituted with the less vulgar "chipkicker", as in
Lyle Lovett's song
"Give back my heart" on
Pontiac, where a girl in a "cowboy-looking bar" is described as a "chipkicker-redneck woman". The word
shithead is a commonly heard insult. A shithead may also be referred to as a
shit-for-brains. Another word for a spectacularly stupid (or contemptible) person is
dipshit.
Shithead is also the name of a card game.
Positive attitude In North American slang, prefixing the article
the to
shit gives it a completely opposite definition, meaning
the best, as in, for example "
Altered Beast is the shit". Other slang words of the same meaning, such as
crap, are not used in such locutions. Having a
shit-eating grin means the person wearing it may be displaying self-satisfaction, smugness, embarrassment, or mischief. It may also be a playful evasion, as a response to the query "I'll bet you drank the whole bottle of booze yourself, didn't you?"
Emphasis Perhaps the only constant
connotation that
shit reliably carries is that its referent holds some degree of emotional intensity for the speaker. Whether offense is taken at hearing the word varies greatly according to listener and situation, and is related to age and
social class:
elderly speakers and those of (or aspiring to) higher
socioeconomic strata tend to use it more privately and selectively than younger and more
blue-collar speakers. Like the word
fuck,
shit is often used to add emphasis more than to add meaning, for example,
shit! I was so shit-scared of that shithead that I shit-talked him into dropping out of the karate match! The term
to shit-talk connotes bragging or exaggeration (whereas
to talk shit primarily means
to gossip [about someone in a damaging way] or to talk in a boastful way about things which are erroneous in nature), but in such constructions as the above, the word
shit often functions as an
interjection. The exclamation
holy shit derives its force from the juxtaposition of the sacred with the profane. Unlike the word
fuck,
shit is not used emphatically with
-ing or as an infix. For example;
I lost the shitting karate match would be replaced with
...thefucking karate match. Similarly, while
in-fucking-credible is generally acceptable,
in-shitting-credible is not.
The verb "to shit" The
preterite and
past participle of
shit are attested as
shat,
shit, or
shitted, depending on dialect and, sometimes, the rhythm of the sentence. In the prologue of
The Canterbury Tales,
shitten is used as the past participle; however this form is not used in modern English. In American English
shit as a past participle is often correct, while
shat is generally acceptable and
shitted is uncommon and missing from the
Random House and
American Heritage dictionaries.
"to shitcan" To
shitcan someone or something is to dismiss or dispose of casually or unceremoniously, as into a waste basket. Shitcan can also be used as a noun: ''Don't bother; a report like this is gonna go directly into the shitcan.'' It can also refer to being fired from a job: "The boss is gonna shitcan you if you keep showing up late."
Backronyms The
backronym form "S.H.I.T." often figures into jokes, like
Special High Intensity Training (a well-known joke used in job applications),
Special Hot Interdiction Team (a mockery on
SWAT), any
college name that begins with an S-H (like
South Harmon Institute of Technology in the film
Accepted (2006), and
Ship High In Transit (or the variant
Store High In Transit in the film
Kenny (2006)).
South Hudson Institute of Technology has sometimes been used to describe the
United States Military Academy at West Point. In polite company, sometimes
backronyms such as
Sugar Honey in Tea or
Sugar Honey Ice(d) Tea are used. ==Usage in classical poetry==