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Shit is an English-language profanity. As a noun, it refers to feces matter, and as a verb it means to defecation; in the plural ("the shits"), it means diarrhea. Shite is a common variant in British English and Hiberno-English. As a slang term, shit has many meanings, including: nonsense, foolishness, something of little value or quality, trivial and usually bullshit or a contemptible person. It could also be used to refer to any other noun in general or as an expression of annoyance, concern, surprise or anger.
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.
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 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.
A of something is a large quantity, especially something unpleasant or disgusting. The boss dumped a shitload of extra work for me this week. A 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).
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 Apathy. 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.
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 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 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 . Shithead is also the name of a card game.
To wear a 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?"
In this form the word can also be used in phrases such as don't give me that shit or you're full of shit. The term full of shit is often used as an exclamation to charge someone who is believed to be prone to dishonesty, exaggeration or is thought to be "phoney" with an accusation. For example:
The word bullshit also denotes false or insincere discourse. ( Horseshit is roughly equivalent, while chickenshit means cowardly, Insanity indicates a person is crazy, and going apeshit indicates a person is entering a state of high excitement or unbridled rage.) Are you shitting me?! is a question sometimes given in response to an incredible assertion. An answer that reasserts the veracity of the claim is, I shit you not.
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 trash-talk connotes bragging or exaggeration (whereas to talk shit primarily means to gossip about 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.
In polite company, sometimes such as Sugar Honey in Tea or Sugar Honey Ice(d) Tea are used.
On the Canadian Showcase television show Trailer Park Boys, characters frequently use the term "shit". For example, the fictional trailer park supervisor James "Jim" Lahey employs many metaphors with the negative slang "shit" bizarrely worked in; in one episode, Mr. Lahey likens Ricky's growing ignorance to that of a "shit tsunami", while in another episode, Mr. Lahey tells Bubbles the " are swooping in low" due to his deplorable behavior and company. The term "shit" is also used in the titles of that show's episodes, themselves, e.g., "The Winds of Shit", "A Shit Leopard Can't Change Its Spots", Disc 2. and "Never Cry Shitwolf".
"Shit" was one of the original "Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV", a comedy routine by the American comedian George Carlin. In the United States, although the use of the word is censored on broadcast network television (while its synonym is not usually subject to censorship), the FCC permitted some exceptions. For example:
An episode of South Park, "It Hits the Fan" (original airdate 20 June 2001), parodied the hype over the Chicago Hope episode. In it, "shit" is used 162 times, and a counter in the corner of the screen tallies the repetitions (excluding the 38 instances of the word's use in written forms, raising the total to an even 200). South Park airs on American cable networks, which are outside the FCC's regulatory jurisdiction and whose censorship of vulgar dialogue is at the discretion of the cable operators.
Since that episode, the word (as well as many on-screen depictions of feces, as well as defecation) has become a mainstay of South Park. Various episodes also feature a character, Mr. Hankey, who is a sentient piece of excrement. Other Comedy Central series, along with programming on other cable networks including FX, TBS, and as of March 2014, Adult Swim, also regularly employ the word shit. Episodes of Graceland, on the USA Network, do also.
Despite this, the word has been featured in popular songs that have appeared on broadcast radio in cases where the usage of the word is not audibly clear to the casual listener, or on live television. For example:
Some notable instances of censorship of the word from broadcast television and radio include:
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