blimey

English

Alternative forms

• blimy

Etymology

A minced oath from [God] blind me, concurrent with or from an abbreviation of gorblimey and cor blimey. Compare crivvens, drat, etc.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈblaɪmi/
• Rhymes: -aɪmi

Interjection

blimey

1. (Britain, Australia, New Zealand) Expressing anger, surprise, excitement, etc. [From 1889.]

   Blimey! I didn't see that!

   • 1945, Kenneth Lewis Roberts, British Mysteries, in The Kenneth Roberts Reader, 2002, page 191,

     “Blimey!” he says in his rough, shepherd's voice, “blimey, but it′s cruel ′ard to be chucked out of one′s digs wivout a blarsted word! […] ”

   • 2007, Penny Vincenzi, The Dilemma^[1], page 311:

     ‘Blimey,’ said Barnaby. ‘Come on, Jack, quick as you can.’

     ‘Blimey,’ said Jack. ‘Blimey blimey blimey.’

   • 2011, Duncan Campbell, If It Bleeds, unnumbered page,

     ‘Blimey,’ said Laurie. ‘But how would he know that the Old Bill are going to swallow that? It′s a bit bloody obvious that someone must have planted it on Petrov, isn′t it?’

Synonyms

• For semantic relationships of this term, see wow in the Thesaurus.

Derived terms

terms derived from blimey

• blimey O'Reilly
• blimey O'Riley
• cor blimey

• gawd blimey
• gorblimey

Translations

expressing surprise, etc.

• Dutch: verdraaid (nl), amai (nl)
• Finnish: helkkari (fi)
• French: mince (fr), bon sang (fr), diantre (fr), fichtre (fr), mazette (fr)

• German: na sowas
• Italian: cribbio (it), perbacco (it), dannazione (it), ostia, miseriaccia, foccalabindella, urca
• Spanish: caramba (es)

See also

• eff and blind