shove it (source: www.celebpub.com)

A few days ago, Jessy and I were watching TV and heard one expression that we all do not understand. (Not a surprise! 🙂 ) By just hearing it, it sounded not really good at all. I think it was the NBC nightly news with Brian Williams. FYI, news is one of the things I really try to watch every day because they speak English very clearly and also I can learn a lot of political aspects of the United States. Anyway, one of the news that Brian mentioned was about a politician who tried to get an endorsement from Barack Obama, the president of the United States for his campaign. But, he was not able to get it.

He then got angry and told the president, “Shove it!” That was one of the news. Jessy and I started to look up the word, shove, to make sure what that means. The word, shove, means “push roughly.” For example, you are in a hurry and try to go though a big crowd to get to a place. What you are going to try is pushing people roughly so that you can get through them. In doing so, you are shoving. Then, what can “shove it” mean? Now, let’s imagine that you have something in front of you which is “it.” What will happen if you push it roughly? It will be moving away from you, right?

Moving on, what if you say this one to someone who is saying something? Then, his/her remark becomes an object that is being shoved. I believe you now get the idea of this expression. It is almost like “shut up” but I think this sounds even worse. But, to be honest, I still cannot get the correct feeling of this expression.

So, I will ask my American friends to answer my question. Which one is harsher, ‘shut up’ or ‘shove it’?