crikey

English

Alternative forms

• crickey, cricky (both less common)

Etymology

Euphemistic substitute for Christ, perhaps a corruption of Christ King. Compare criminy, cripes, crivvens. Attested from the 19th century.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹaɪki/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɑeki/

  • Audio (Queensland):

    (file)

• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹaɪki/, /ˈkɹɑe̯ki/
• Rhymes: -aɪki

Interjection

crikey

1. (UK, Ireland, Australia, Commonwealth) An exclamation of astonishment.

   Crikey, mate, that ain't a knife, this is a knife!

   • 2023 February 16, Erielle Sudario, “Australia gets its own online aesthetic with 'crikeycore'”, in We Got This Covered‎, archived from the original on 23 November 2023:

     The label is based on the word “crikey” the famous catchphrase of Steve Irwin, and “core,” meaning the essential part of anything, according to dictionary.com.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:wow

Derived terms

• crikeycore

Translations

exclamation of astonishment

Afrikaans: ettig, aitsa (af) Finnish: herranen aika French: parbleu (fr), palsambleu (fr), morbleu (fr), crique (fr) German: hoppla (de), parbleu Italian: cribbio (it), perbacco (it), dannazione (it), osteria (it), alla faccia (it) Maori: ēhe Portuguese: credo! (pt) m, bolas! (pt) Russian: бо́же мой (ru) m (bóže moj), на́до же (ru) n (nádo že), о бо́же n (o bóže) Spanish: caray (es)

References

• “crikey, int.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, November 2010.

Anagrams

• Rickey, rickey, yicker