scrape someone off the ceiling

English

Verb

scrape someone off the ceiling (third-person singular simple present scrapes someone off the ceiling, present participle scraping someone off the ceiling, simple past and past participle scraped someone off the ceiling)

1. (idiomatic) Used to describe the response to someone who is either experiencing great pain, very frightened, or very elated.
   • 1979, A History of Cancer Control in the United States, 1946-1971:

     He would come over to my office at least once a week and explode because somebody had been after him. And I would scrape him off the ceiling and send him back until the next week.

   • 1983, Michael Skinner, USAFE, a primer of modern air combat in Europe, page 8:

     Occasionally, however, they will get a real thriller, and when the horn goes off at a particularly suspenseful point, they say you can scrape the pilots off the ceiling.

   • 1992, Jasmine Cresswell, Nowhere to Hide, page 200:

     Do you think you could scrape yourself off the ceiling long enough for us to get some sleep?

   • 2001, G.C. Rosenquist, The Opening And Closing Of The Moon, page 9:

     It made my inner self so excited I had to think of baseball or they'd be scraping me off the ceiling.

   • 2007, James Kirkwood, P.S. Your Cat Is Dead:

     No, you'd have to scrape me off the ceiling.

   • 2007, Harvard Business School Alumni Bulletin:

     I spoke with Kip the other day, and you could scrape him off the ceiling with the obvious pride and excitement he shares with Kinsley.

   • 2011, John White, Parents in Pain, page 64:

     Barbara Johnson of Melodyland wrote to me about her Spatula Club. "You need a bit of humor. Parents have to be scraped off the ceiling when they first find out. So we make these little spatulas. . . . "

   • 2012, Dr. Brian La Trobe, Of Diamonds and Dentistry, page 368:

     Expose a pulp or so called “nerve” of an adult tooth accidently,^[sic] without an anaesthetic, and you will have to scrape your patient off the ceiling.

   • 2018, Written Off, page Paul Carroll:

     Chapman, you could have scraped me off the ceiling.

Usage notes

Usually used in phrases such as "have to scrape (someone) off the ceiling" or "could scrape (someone) off the ceiling".

See also

• hit the roof