Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Lord n.1

SE in slang uses

In compounds

In phrases

Lord knows (also Christ knows what, ...when, ...who, Lord knows how..., what, ...where, ...who, ...why, the Lord of Oxford knows)

a phr. implying amazement, incredulity or plain ignorance; thus as n., an unknown place, person or reason.

[UK] ‘Old England turned New’ in Ebsworth Merry Drollery Compleat (1875) 267: And what is become of your old fashion Cloaths / [...] / They are turned to new fashions, but what, the Lord knows.
[Ire]‘Lilliburlero’ in A. Carpenter Verse in Eng in 18C Ireland (1998) 38: De law’s on dare side, and Chreist knows what.
J. Phillips [trans.] Cervantes Don Quixote 27: [I]n the Night time there came a Sorcerer as they call ‘em, mounted upon a Dragon, [...] who [...] alighting from the Dragon’s back, [...] went up to the Study, and what he did there, the Lord of Oxford knows.
[UK]J. Crowne City Politicks I i: It cost me the Lord knows what in one beauty-water or another.
[UK]Cibber Woman’s Wit II i: Gad, take me, it has cost me the Lord knows what to qualify me for the Bar of Love.
[UK]N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus II:7 24: Attended by a ragged Crew / Of link-boys, and the Lord knows who!
Swift Jrnl to Stella 12 May 34: The court was very full [...] expecting Mr Harley would be declared earl of Oxford [...] Mr Harley never comes to court at all; somebody there asked me the treason; ‘Why’, said I, ‘the lord of Oxford knows’.
[UK] in J. Malcolm Anecdotes of Manners and Customs (1808) 74: Mist’s Journal contains a paragraph, said to have been copied from a work intituled, ‘The Lord knows what, by the Lord knows who’.
[UK]Swift Polite Conversation 21: lord sp.: What Lord d’ye mean, Tom? miss.: Why, my Lord, I suppose Mr. Neverout means the Lord of the Lord knows what.
[UK]Trial of Elizabeth Canning in Howell State Trials (1816) 352: Who set out with them? [...] The Lord knows, I don't know that.
[UK]Bridges Homer Travestie (1764) II 223: ’Twas Hector’s bribes, and only that, / He promis’d me the lord knows what.
[UK]Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 42: E’er since I saw that white-legg’d mawkin [...] that Thetis, stroking / Your knees, as on the ground you sat, / And rubbing up, the Lord knows what.
[US]Adventures of Jonathan Corncob 51: She knelt down before her niece, and introducing it between her feet, applied it the Lord knows where, for I lost sight of her arm.
[UK]‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Liberty’s Last Squeak’ Works (1801) V 77: Behold a youth with muddled brain, Reeling, the Lord knows where, a little drunk.
[UK] ‘Jonny Raw and Polly Clark’ in Batchelar’s Jovial Fellows Collection of Songs 4: He dreamt his wife had from him fled, / Ri tol de rol / Then full of joy he ’woke, it’s true, / and found his rib had prov’d untrue, / and bolted with the lord knows who.
[UK]Beppo in London xciv: I mean the mighty Quarterly Review, Written by Gifford, and the Lord knows who.
[UK] ‘The Song of the Young Prig’ in C. Hindley James Catnach (1878) 171: And if you ’d know my father’s style, / He was the Lord Knows-who, sirs!
[US]T. Haliburton Letter-bag of the Great Western (1873) 153: I am off with him in this steamer, and it’s hurrah for Yankee town, and the Lord knows where.
[US]T. Haliburton Sam Slick’s Wise Saws II 203: They were translations of languages of the dead, or them that were livin’ the Lord knows where.
[US]J.L. Lowell Biglow Papers 2nd series (1880) 114: A high-school, where they teach the Lord knows what.
[UK]F.W. Hume Hagar of the Pawn-Shop 154: A pal o’ mine as is a sailor brought it from Lord-knows-where.
[Aus]H. Lawson ‘Bound for the Lord-Knows-Where’ in Roderick (1967–9 ) II 196: And we’re bound for the lord-knows-where, / Old chap — we’re bound for the lord-knows-where.
[UK]‘Bartimeus’ ‘Farewell and Adieu!’ in Naval Occasions 144: Lord knows, I don’t want to idealise barmaids.
Appleton (Wisc.) Daily Post 6 Jan. 5/6–7: [advert] Buckaroo (buck-a-roo) [...] Meaning, when applied to the masculine gender of the human species, [...] a ding-bustin’ devil-may-care crittur from away back, headed for the Lord-Knows-Where.
[Ire]Joyce Ulysses 429: Wildgoose chase this. Disorderly houses. Lord knows where they are gone.
[US]E. O’Neill Iceman Cometh Act I: Couple of con men living in my flat since Christ knows when!
[US]W.R. Burnett Nobody Lives for Ever 34: [S]oldiers and sailors and Christ-knows-who-all patrol the roads with loaded guns.
[Aus]T. Winton Turning (2005) 133: Dirty clothes, half of which stank of craybait and bloke sweat and Christ-knows-what.

In exclamations

Lord blue me!

(Aus.) a mild excl.

[Aus]Newcastle Morn. Herald (NSW) 24 Nov. 2/1: And cries of ‘strike me handsome’ and ‘Lord blue me’ filled the air.
[Aus]Bulletin 9 Feb. n.p.: Got a cigar in yer old clothes, matey? / Lor’ blue me if I’m not dead for a smoke.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 7 Sept. 8/3: Oh, Lord blew me, Mister Norton, / That will be a rummy go.