When we Texans say, “He ripped his britches!” we don’t mean it literally. That old Texas expression means that someone has irreparably damaged his reputation, ruined his good name, or made one mistake too many.
Whatever it was he did was not a forgivable offense. Nothing will ever be the same again.
The Texan who is telling the story may be either mad or glad, depending on the situation. Remember awhile back when I told you about the good ol’ Texas expression just hide and watch?
Well, if you do hide and watch, sometimes you get rewarded by seeing the wrongdoer undone by his own misdeeds.
However, someone is usually mad about whatever it is that happened. And to that person, who may have previously been blind to all the faults of the evildoer, the transgressor has ripped his britches. There’s no going back to the way things were.
On a milder note, “ripped his britches” can just mean that someone has created a royally embarrassing situation for himself or created a scandal that won’t go away. He has shown his true colors (and maybe his underwear), and everybody who matters knows about it.
And some of them are enjoying his big comedown. Or comeuppance. Or whatever you want to call that fall from grace.
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