tear up the pea patch

present singular third person tears up the pea patch · participle present tearing up the pea patch · past tore up the pea patch · participle past torn up the pea patch

1. idiomaticTo put on a notable performance, especially in sports; to go on a rampage.

   In the words of one who knows him well, "on a matter of principle, John McCone is quite capable of tearing up the pea patch."

   1964, Stewart Alsop with Thomas Wardell Braden, Sub rosa: the OSS and American espionage, page 244

   1 more example

   Television tore up the entire pea patch. Radio was so big, so dominant, so powerful in 1939 that television seemed mostly talk and conjecture.

   1970, Red Barber, The broadcasters, page 52