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# blimey

«blimey» in Mova's school dictionary: **a cry of surprise, shock or amazement, like «wow!» or…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

interjection (blimey; also cor blimey, gor blimey)

### meaning for a pupil

1) (UK, informal) a cry of surprise, shock or amazement, like «wow!» or «goodness!». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blimey/#m1)

2) (euphemism, origin) a softened form of the old oath «God blind me». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blimey/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

Very common in British speech, old-fashioned but friendly; heard in films, comics and from grandparents; mild, not rude; a way to swear without swearing. UK, Ireland, Australia.

### examples

- Blimey, look at the size of that dog! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blimey/#x1)
- Blimey, is that the time already? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blimey/#x2)
- «It costs how much? Blimey!» [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blimey/#x3)
- Cor blimey, it's freezing out there. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blimey/#x4)
- Blimey, Charlie, you've grown! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blimey/#x5)
- The answer was 1,000? Blimey, I wrote 100. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blimey/#x6)
- Blimey O'Reilly, what a mess! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blimey/#x7)

### note

Mild and safe in most places, even with children. Nobody hears the old «God blind me» in it any more. It sounds very British; in the USA it sounds like an English film character.

### In the corpora

- [Others, like "blimey" and "strewth", were once oaths about God that have worn soft with time.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/5/)
- ["Blimey!" is a British cry of surprise that comes from the old oath "God blind me".](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/38-drat-and-the-f-word/11/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «blimey» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/blimey/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.