clutch one's pearls

present singular third person clutches one's pearls · participle present clutching one's pearls · participle past clutched one's pearls · past clutched one's pearls

1. To react with consternation to someone or something that violates the usual norms.

   Nala wasn't the type to clutch her pearls and run home.

   2016, Cynthia Dane, The Nightingale Submits

   4 more examples

   Of course, you can't say any of this out loud, or people will clutch their pearls and call you a monster.

   2013, Michelle Hodkin, The Evolution of Mara Dyer

   I can tell you I've heard some ugly shit that would make Ozzy Osbourne clutch his pearls.

   2016, Elisabeth Staab, By the Rules

   She had conceived of this gathering as an antidote to the typical women's retreats—she wanted to create a space for the women who feel like they don't quite fit into the Good Christian Lady story, the women who make other women clutch their pearls, the women who feel like zebras in a pasture filled with horses.

   2020, Sarah Bessey, Miracles and Other Reasonable Things, page 28

   A flashed badge wouldn't make anyone on the Strike management team clutch their pearls, except maybe Darryl, but he wasn't here.

   2020, Mindy Mejia, Strike Me Down, page 226