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# crikey

«crikey» in Mova's school dictionary: **a cry of surprise or alarm, like «wow!» or «goodness!»…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

interjection (crikey)

### meaning for a pupil

(informal, euphemism) a cry of surprise or alarm, like «wow!» or «goodness!»; originally a soft stand-in for «Christ». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crikey/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

Mild, friendly, old-fashioned British and Australian exclamation; heard in comics, children's books, wildlife shows. Safe in most company.

### examples

- Crikey, that's a big spider! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crikey/#x1)
- Crikey, I forgot my homework! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crikey/#x2)
- Crikey, look at the time! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crikey/#x3)
- «Crikey!» said the explorer when he saw the crocodile. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crikey/#x4)
- Crikey, it's hot today. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crikey/#x5)
- Crikey Moses, what was that noise? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/crikey/#x6)

### note

Mild and safe. Nobody thinks of its religious origin today. Sounds British or Australian.

### In the corpora

- ["Crikey" is a mild word used instead of "Christ"; it is British and Australian.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/19/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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