What's the difference between "he dropped the ball" and "he shit the bed"?

While they have the same meaning, the latter is coarser, less formal, and implies an error of greater magnitude. You would say the former in meeting with your boss when discussing a colleagues performance, and not the latter

Drop the ball means that you had a responsibility to do something and you failed to do it. Shit the bed means to fail spectacularly at something. To make a complete mess of it. Not only is "shit the bed" more vulgar, but to me it implies a much more severe and irreperable failure. I could have dropped the ball by messing up one small part of a task, but the task still completed successfully. But if I shit the bed, the task was a total failure.

Kind of the same thing ... But "shit the bed" is very antagonistic. Dropped the ball is much more mild.

They mean the same thing, more or less. "He shit the bed" is more crude and a bit stronger

One you could definitely say at work! Dropping the ball tends to be a mistake but not necessarily a catastrophic one, you just made a small error. Shitting the bed means you completely messed up and it's not something that could be recovered from. Also, the use of 'shit' means it's not an expression you want to use unless you're sure of the people you're around.

There's no difference in meaning, but "shit the bed" is much more vulgar and tends to describe a more serious mistake.

They’re very similar. If I had to find a difference, I would say that I would use “dropped the ball” when someone loses a big opportunity, and I would use “shit the bed” when someone ruined something.

Both mean someone made a big mistake, but the first one is a much milder way to say it.

The idioms mean the same thing.

They are both figures of speech indicating someone made a mistake or failed at a task.

I’ve always assumed that “dropped the ball” came from baseball, where it’s an embarrassing mistake that fans will briefly be mad at you for and, in fact, is a fairly normal and minor occurrence. I don’t know if there’s a specific cultural reference for shitting the bed, but it’s obviously quite a lot more memorable as an occurrence. Also - don’t forget “screwed the pooch”! That’s pretty, bad too.

Others are not mentioning that the etymology of "shit the bed" refers to a corpse voiding its bowels after a nocturnal death, and that usage remain current either as a disrespectful reference to someone's passing, or the more metaphorical description of something reaching the end of its useful service: "I have to call out today, my water heater shit the bed so I have to empty my basement and find a plumber immediately." The more oblique usage described in your post is not simply vulgar, but extreme: the task has been failed permanently. "Dropped the ball" is a reference to any number of sports, the implication is a lack of focus has led to a task being missed.

one is vulgar; the other is not. if you’re in any setting that isn’t friends & family where you know the vibe, go with “dropped the ball.” i suspect you would never use the vulgar phrase because you used an asterisk rather than spelling out “shit.” if you censor yourself on reddit, you probably would never say it irl.

See also: screwed the pooch I'd place that in between the others in terms of how severe the mistake was. Edit: some others are saying shit the bed implies death, which i don't hear often outside of movies. But it reminded me od some other idioms for "he died" in case you're interested: Kicked the can Gave up the ghost

One is a LOT more graphic than the other.

I have never heard the "shit the bed" one. If I heard it, I would think someone literally shit in their bed.

Dropped the ball = made a mistake Shit the bed = you fucked this all the way up!

Dropped the ball: I promised to buy milk, but I forgot. Shit the bed: Not only did I forget to order milk, but I burnt down the house too.

It’s going to depend on each person’s personal experience, but shitting the bed is worse than dropping the ball. Same concept, larger magnitude.

Both mean making a mistake or failing in some way, usually in a way that disappointed the speaker, but 'dropping the ball' is a common, every-day expression that you can use in most contexts, while 'shitting the bed' is an extremely crass and rude way to say the same thing, so it's not something you'd say in a formal context or with someone you don't know very well unless you're intentionally trying to shame/insult the person in an openly hostile way.

The former I would say at work, the latter I would not lol

I agree with many others here that dropping the ball is less serious than shitting the bed. To me, dropping the ball implies a mistake that is still recoverable. Like you can still "pick the ball back up" and get back to business. Something like "I was supposed to call Jim on Friday, but I forgot to, but I'll call on Tuesday."  Whereas shitting the bed implies that the whole situation is ruined and you have to aggressively clean it up or it's just totally gone. Something like "I deleted the entire document and it can't be recovered, so the client is planning to switch to our competitor."

"Scott forgot to take out the trash last night, and we missed trash day. He really dropped the ball." "My friend crashed his car while we were driving up to the state park to camp for the weekend. He was texting when it happened, he really shit the bed." Although I will say, "shit the bed" isn't that common. When it *is* used, it usually means something went seriously wrong.

I would argue that the mistake involved in "He dropped the ball" is more one of neglect, forgetfulness, or omission, while the mistake involved in "He shit the bed" is making a blatant error or just really messing things up due to an action he took.

Shitting the bed implies death, or total catastrophic failure if you’re talking about a machine. Dropping the ball just means a mistake was made.

‘He shit the bed’ to me usually implies some sort of mess was made. In music auditions, if you play a hard excerpt and miss half the notes, you shit the bed. If you forgot that you would be asked to play that bit of music, and do not know how to play it, you dropped the ball. (Native Speaker, GA USA)

One you have to clean up

Just like in real life, shitting the bed is worse

One uses the past tense correctly.

But which one screwed the pooch?

Using one or the other wouldn’t really turn too many heads. I think “he dropped the ball” kind of implies “he was disappointing” vs. “he shit the bed” implies a more serious fuck-up

UK, specifically West Yorkshire. This may be regional, but I’ve never heard “shit the bed” to mean the same as “dropped the ball”. “He shit the bed” would be understood as a joke about why someone is awake/out and about earlier than usual. As well as “dropped the ball”, we would also use “dropped a bollock”. Same meaning. ETA: We might also use “shit the bed!” as an expression of surprise

To "Shit the Bed" is to arrive at a particular place considerably earlier than expected. I.e Coming into work 1-2 hours early.

Guy missed an internal deadline? Dropped the ball. Guy got his side girl pregnant and his wife found out and now is leaving him and taking the house and kids? He shit the bed.

They're pretty different for me. Late 30s, grew up in California, lived all over the country. "He dropped the ball" means he made a mistake. It's not too aggressive, and can be used at work (though calling out a colleague can itself be aggressive; "I dropped the ball" is a pretty normal thing to say, though). On the other hand, "He shit the bed" doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It's not interchangeable with "He dropped the ball". I think I hear it more with things than people, and it's not that they "made a mistake" but that they broke in a big way.

Dropped the ball means you failed to accomplish something. Shit the bed means not only did you fail to accomplish something, but you also made it way worse than it needed to be.

>What's the difference between "he dropped the ball" and "he shit the bed"? The smell.

"STB"to me has always met that you "shot yourself in the foot" so badly that you lost control of your bodily functions. to me it indicates more of a screw up one commits resulting in fallout mostly to oneself. Dropping the ball can apply to any situation. The person in charge of payroll can drop the ball by forgetting to include the cost of living races the boss promised everyone in this weeks paychecks. A spouse can drop the ball by forgetting a wedding anniversary or birthday of their spouse. A kid can drop the ball by failing to do his chores, which results in losing privileges. When the best man woke up the morning after the bachelor party and realized he had no idea where the wedding rings were, he STB. The secretary realized she had failed to prepare the agenda and minutes for the upcoming board meeting, she just about STB.

Well, “he dropped the bed” sure doesn’t mean the same thing as “he shit the ball”

"He dropped the ball," means to fail to do something a person was responsible for. "He shit the bed," means that person died.

Edgy, angry, vulgar, and American people say "shit the bed". Edit to insert an Oxford comma: coz you don't have to be both American and vulgar to use it. Either one will do

Generally people drop balls (make errors) while objects shit the bed (stop working properly). However some people can shit the bed when they make grave errors, but this doesn't happen nearly as often.