Pisser dans sa culotte
Meaning: To laugh helplessly — or, oppositely, to be terrified.
Language: French
Literally: To piss in one's trousers
Example: “Son imitation du prof était tellement drôle qu'on a failli pisser dans notre culotte.” — His impression of the teacher was so funny we nearly laughed our heads off.
English equivalent: To laugh one's head off
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: Two senses that look contrary and are in fact one: both come down to losing control of the sphincters. The phrase dates from the 16th century, though what it describes plainly predates it. Laugh hard enough with a full bladder and the abdominal contractions will do the rest, which is generally sufficient to end the laughing fit; that is the first sense, and it survives whether or not the accident actually occurs. A bad enough fright produces the same relaxation and therefore the same result, which is the second. There is a nice asymmetry in how French treats them: for fear the usual phrase is chier dans son froc instead, because urinating involuntarily can be attached to laughter without much shame, while the other thing is judged as harshly as the fear itself.
Other ways to say this
- Portuguese: morrer de rir — literally: to die of laughing
- French: Rire comme une baleine — literally: To laugh like a whale
- English: laugh one's head off
More idioms — Body & Senses
- Se chatouiller le poireau — To masturbate, said of a man. Vulgar.
- Se magner la rondelle — To get a move on. Vulgar.
- Avoir les deux pieds dans le même sabot — To be incapable of acting; to sit there doing nothing.
- Y a pas à tortiller du cul — Enough hesitating — a decision has to be made. Also: this is simply undeniable.
- Ne pas avoir les yeux en face des trous — To be unable to see what is right in front of you — usually because you are barely awake.
- navel-gaze — To be absorbed in oneself and one's own concerns to an excessive degree.
More French idioms
- Être à côté de la plaque — To be wide of the mark; to answer something other than the question asked.
- Ça va durer trois plombes — It's going to take hours.
- Avoir la poisse — To have persistent, clinging bad luck.
- Avoir un coup de pompe — To be hit by a sudden wave of exhaustion.
- Ça se bouscule au portillon — There's a crush; also, crudely, of an urgent need to be sick.
- Tirer le portrait — To take someone's photograph.
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