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IN the dictionary

pee (one's) pants

  1. Literally, to urinate while still wearing one's clothing.

I need you to pull over the car right now, or else I'm going to pee my pants!

poop (one's) pants

  1. Literally, to defecate while still wearing one's pants.

I need you to pull over the car right now, or else I'm going to poop my pants!

I think these 2 idioms are not grammatical though people use them.

I also hear a lot of people say ""to poop / pee on one's pants""

Eg: my mom just pooped on her pants while working she is around 60 years old

"to poop / pee one's pants" or "to poop / pee on one's pants" which one is more common?

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  • 2
    You would never say "on". You might possibly say "in".
    – Daniel Roseman
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 11:34
  • 1
    why down votes? make no sense
    – Tom
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 14:44
  • Older generations say: to pee in one's pants, and to poop in one's pants. This usage is colloquial and probably AmE. And definitely not on, unless one is a dog.
    – Lambie
    Commented Dec 26, 2019 at 22:05
  • @Lambie, American often says "shit oneself" idioms.thefreedictionary.com/shit+oneself, is that right?
    – Tom
    Commented Dec 27, 2019 at 2:06
  • @Tom Yes, of course, but pee/poop is not vulgar, it's acceptable.
    – Lambie
    Commented Dec 27, 2019 at 15:40

3 Answers 3

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To "poop/pee in one's pants" (not 'on') is just as idiomatic as "pee one's pants", but they are different ways of expressing the same thing.

"Poop" and "pee" can be used as:

  • nouns for the waste matter (eg "there's some poop in my pants")
  • verbs for the action of passing that matter from one's body (eg "I pooped in my pants")
  • verbs for the action of contaminating something with that matter (eg "I pooped my pants")

This latter use is similar to the way the word "soiled" would be used (eg "I soiled my pants"), or "wet" (eg "I wet my pants").

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  • Excellent answer, especially if you add a bit to clarify the actual meaning of "poop on one's pants." (As in a misbehaving pet, a farmer working with livestock, or a really weird person.)
    – Jason Patterson
    Commented Jan 29 at 20:57
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That’s not a matter of language but of what happens. “On my pants” would be 100% correct if I took of my pants Off, put them on the floor, and then defecated on them. How many people do that? Very, very few. So there are few situations where it is correct. In those cases, it is correct, no matter how rare the use is.

What you found in the dictionary is absolutely correct. Use it in the situations described.

“In his pants” is actually what most men do all the time - wearing their pants and making sure nothing gets on their clothes, instead of taking their pants off first.

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  • Could be a dog, ha ha. OR a cat. The other day my cat peed on a throw on my couch, in fact.
    – Lambie
    Commented May 16, 2020 at 14:16
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You wouldn’t say “on”, you would say “in”, as you are inside of them.

However, you’d much more commonly hear “peed his pants”.

This, I guess, is somewhat of a colloquialism (as you correctly observed), and thinking about it, what the lack of “in” or “on” really represents is that:

  1. You did not intend to pee on the thing, and doing so is expected to cause you shame or embarrassment.
  2. The thing you peed on is considered to be a part of your person, or at least an extension of your person (e.g., your pants).

Another example you’d hear is:

Peed himself.

We could imagine “pee”, in this particular context, defined as:

verb to cover in urine

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    Not sure why you got a down vote. It be nice if someone could chime in. Anyway, it might be worth noting that "to poop/pee on one's pants" is valid, but means something different.
    – Em.
    Commented Nov 25, 2019 at 5:49
  • +1 Sure, it is said in AmE, but my objection to the expression is due to its grammatical ambiguity. I would say: to pee/poop in one's pants, as poop his pants, sounds like: He pooped gold coins. OR He peed blood. If you get my drift. –
    – Lambie
    Commented Dec 27, 2019 at 15:40
  • @Lambie But sometimes (actually quite often) language is ambiguous in exactly that way. Nobody would be arguing that "John ran a race." is somehow odd or colloquial or ungrammatical even though we could say that "John ran in a race." just as easily.
    – Jason Patterson
    Commented Jan 29 at 20:55
  • @JasonPatterson I believe I gave this person a plus one. But I reserve the right to have my own opinion.
    – Lambie
    Commented Jan 29 at 23:12
  • @Lambie OK? Was that in question?
    – Jason Patterson
    Commented Jan 30 at 3:30

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