the pants off

alternative the pants off of

1. idiomaticAn intensifier used with some transitive action verbs to indicate that the action is performed with thoroughness, vigor, or complete success.

   He liked the water rides, but the big roller-coaster scared the pants off him.

   5 more examples

   "Dang you, Luck, if you wasn't such a little runt I'd come up there and jest about lick the pants off you!"

   1916, B. M. Bower, chapter 9, in The Heritage of the Sioux

   "And did you also feel like you could whip the pants off any mother's son alive?"

   1937 April 5, “Miscellany”, in Time

   Reuters had scooped the pants off the U.S. press.

   1943 December 13, “The Press: Scooped Again”, in Time

   American workers can outcompete and beat the pants off anybody, anywhere.

   1987 September 6, Bernard Weinraub, “Reagan Tells Congress to Shun Protectionism”, in New York Times, retrieved 16 Aug 2012

   Jeffrey Vinik, manager of the $56 billion Fidelity Magellan Fund, the world's largest and most closely watched mutual fund, "beat the pants off the managers of other large funds," in the words of one analyst.

   1996 June 3, John Greenwald et al., “Magellan's New Direction”, in Time

   Synonyms: the pantaloons off