screaming abdabs
A brilliantly expressive British slang phrase for a state of extreme nervousness, anxiety, or the jitters — the kind of jangling, can't-sit-still agitation that has you climbing the walls.
Definitions
A brilliantly expressive British slang phrase for a state of extreme nervousness, anxiety, or the jitters — the kind of jangling, can't-sit-still agitation that has you climbing the walls. If something gives you the screaming abdabs, it's wound you up to a level well beyond ordinary worry. The phrase has a pleasing absurdity that suits the feeling it describes: irrational, frantic, slightly comic panic. Also used in the variant 'the abdabs' without the 'screaming' intensifier.
The thought of speaking in front of the whole school gave her the screaming abdabs for a week beforehand.
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(British, slang) A state of extreme nervousness.
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🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang
UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
See all British & Irish slang slang on Slangora.
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Semantically related
- abdabs83%
(slang) Extreme nervousness or anxiety; terror; heebie-jeebies.
- screaming, crying, throwing up64%
(Internet slang) Used to indicate enthusiasm or excitement.
- absofreakinglutely mode61%
A state of total, zero-hesitation commitment to a task, vibe, or decision. When someone is in absofreakinglutely mode, they are all-in with theatrical certainty — no maybes, no caveats, just full-throttle yes energy.
- absofreakinglutely61%
(slang, emphatic) Absolutely.