have kittens

verb

1. To become extremely upset.

   “Your mum will have kittens when she sees what you've done to your hair!”

   “My teacher has kittens every time I get a question wrong.”

2. To be in a state of frantic nervousness.

   “The guests are starting to arrive, but the hostess is having kittens because nothing is ready yet.”

   “Phipps went on: “One of our chaps, out on a reccy over the Bulgarian front, thought he saw something in the snow. Something fishy. He dropped down to have a dekko and nearly had kittens. What d'you think? Jerry's got a mass of stuff there—tanks, guns, lorries, every sort of heavy armament. All camouflaged. White.””

3. Usually of a female cat, to give birth to kittens.