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Green’s Dictionary of Slang

laws! excl.

also lawsee! lawsie! lawsy!

Lord!

1780		H. Cowley Belle’s Stratagem III i: Laws! why don’t you know me?
1827		J. Wight More Mornings in Bow St. 68: Oh, laws! Oh, laws! there’s neither law nor justice to be had in this wicked world!
1837		R.M. Bird Nick of the Woods I 31: Laws! do remember your father’s a Cunnel in the milishy.
1841		‘Summer Hill Courtship’ Dublin Comic Songster 33: But laws! I’ve got no money.
1856		M. Griffith Autobiog. of a Female Slave 42: Laws, master, I’ll be ’tickler enough.
1875		M. Thompson Hoosier Mosaics 192: ‘O-o-o! Oh, sir! Geeroody! O me! ouch! lawsy! lawsy! mercy me!’ The slender scion of an apple tree, in the hand of Mr. Coulter, rose and fell.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 19: Lawsy, Mr. McDuff, you gimme a start! [Ibid.] 171: Oh, my nerves is just jumpin’! Lawsy!
1906		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 144: lawsee, interj. Goodness!
1914		G.A. England ‘Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire’ in Dialect Notes IV:ii 75: lawzee! or lawzee me! or lossyme! Common ejaculations with women.
1921		Dos Passos Three Soldiers 396: Lawsie, Ah juss woke up.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 277: Laws, laws, this will never do!
1927		(con. 1900s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 86: Oh, laws, how long is it she’s been dead now?
1934		Lomax & Lomax Amer. Ballads and Folk Songs 612: Steal up to de back do’, / Den on to de bed, / Lawsy, Lawsy, mister, / Da’s ’nough said.
1941		D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 12 Apr. 13: Lawsy! The chicks sit on the mourner’s bench and move in on him [i.e. a handsome man] one by one.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 342: Laws, I do declare he blushin.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 493: Holy gee mister, but you took a tumble [...] Didn’t you just? My laws!

In exclamations

law sakes! (also lawful sakes! law sakes alive! laws sakes! lawsy’s sakes!)

(US) a mild oath, lit. ‘for the Lord’s sake!’.

1846		Hereford Jrnl 25 Feb. 4/6: ‘Why don’t she get up and do her work?’ — ‘She is too feeble’ — ‘Law sakes, too feeble!’.
c.1850		F.M. Whitcher Widow Bedott Papers (1883) 7: But lawful sakes! I most forgot.
1856		H.B. Stowe Dred I 195: Laws sakes, Miss Nina!
1871		Western Gaz. 30 June 3/3: Law sakes, I thought I smelt something good.
1876		Blackburn Standard 23 Sept. 2/1: ‘Wa’al! Lawful sakes!’ ejaculated the Colonel.
1879		Aberdeen Jrnl 18 Apr. 7/6: Law’s sakes alive [...] that knife was so blunt you never could have cut your throat with it.
1880		Dover Exp. 1 June 3/4: ‘Lawful sakes!’ she cried. ‘Do you think that was Mrs Sudds?’.
1886		Shields Dly Gaz. 21 Aug. 8/5: Law sakes, Mr Ferguson! [...] missus done gone ’way.
1887		Yorks. Gaz. 2 July 10/1: ‘Law sakes alive!’ exclaimed the woman.
1891		Coventry Eve. Teleg. 17 Sept. 4/4: Law sakes, Mrs Jones, You know I ain’t no musician.
1905		‘Central Connecticut Word-List’ in DN III:i 13: law sakes! or law sakes alive! interj. For the Lord’s sake!
1910		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 26 Jan. 6/2: ‘Law sakes!’ cried the good woman.
1906		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 144: lawsy’s sakes, interj.
1914		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 29 July 6/2: Law sakes, Ella, is it really you?

law’s-a-me! (also laws me!)

(US) a mild oath, lit. ‘Lord save me!’.

1871		E. Eggleston Hoosier School-Master (1892) 130: But, laws a me! we’re all selfish akordin’ to my tell.
1876		‘Mark Twain’ Tom Sawyer 19: He’s full of the Old Scratch, but laws-a-me! he’s my own dead sister’s boy.
1883		‘Mark Twain’ Life on the Mississippi (1914) 347: Laws-a-me, if my folk have told me once to look out [etc.].
1886		‘Lady Kate, the Dashing Female Detective’ in Roberts et al. Old Sleuth’s Freaky Female Detectives (1990) 14/1: Why, laws me! didn’t you ever hear of the Raymond murder?