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Know Your English (Oct 2001)-2

Know your English

What is the meaning of "You scared the daylights out of me"?


This is an expression which is mostly used in informal contexts. When you "scare the daylights out of someone", you succeed in frightening the person quite badly. Remember the James Bond movie, "Living Daylights"? Well, it is also possible to say, ``scare the living daylights out of someone". Here are a few examples.
* The little boy scared the daylights out of his mother.
* The bombing of the World Trade Center has scared the living daylights out of most Americans.
* Vijay's Halloween mask scared the daylights out of Sadhana.
Other expressions which mean more or less the same thing are "frighten the daylights out of someone", "scare the wits out of someone", and "scare someone out of his wits".


Source:
The Hindu daily, Tuesday, October 02, 2001
Posted by Sridevi. V, M.A

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