Green’s Dictionary of Slang

crikey! excl.

a euph. for Christ! excl.

1812		J. Bell Jr. (ed.) Rhymes of Northern Bards 26: Odds marcy! Wye, marrows, becrike it’s Lord ’Size.
1828		Melodist, and Mirthful Olio 126: O crikey, Mr. Bullock, your face looks as vacant as an empty doctor's shop.
1832		Mr Mathews’ Comic Annual 17: Oh! crikey! oh!
1835		Sydney Herald 18 June 4/2: [V]hen ve vas lagged, crikie, what a palaver the ould one in the big wig did hold forth.
1836		N.Y. Herald 12 Feb. 1/2: [headline] Arraigned for Trial. Oh! Cricker!
1836		‘You Knows Vot’ in New Cockalorum Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) II 13: Oh, crikeys rot [sic] a treat.
1837		N.Y. Times 14 Jan. 2/6: Crikie jack! as the boys say.
1837		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 18 Nov. 19: What a whacker – here’s a sarver – crikey, what a length.
1838		‘Alfred Crowquill’ Seymour’s Humourous Sketches (1866) 3: O! crikey! — there’s a heap o’ birds.
1841		‘The Charity Boy’ Dublin Comic Songster 165: Oh, crickeys! don’t I eat and sup.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 23 Apr. n.p.: ‘O, crikey!’ as the boys say; ‘there’s a leg, Jim!’.
1845		Bell’s Life in Sydney 6 Sept. 4/1: Crickey, what a mistake.
1846		Thackeray Diary of C. Jeames de la Pluche in Works III (1898) 394: Crikey, Jeames, you’ve got a better birth here than you ad where you were in the plush and powder line.
1846		Portage Sentinel (Ravenna, OH) 7 Jan. 1/3: ‘Crickey! how the dishes rattled!
1851		Era 10 Aug. 4/2: He, ther downey bird, waz won ov ther victims, and I thout how he’d nap it wen he got home. O, crickey!
1853		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Nov. 79/1: The bonâ-fide signature of Peter McCrikey, Ensign.
1853		W.G. Simms Sword and the Distaff 308: Criki — Lord! what an etarnal hand!
1865		Sydney Morn. Herald 27 July 2/4: Crikey, Bob, science has shown that we were born criminals; and you know my father was hung for murder, and my uncle [...] was transported for smashing.
1868		‘Six Years in the Prisons of England’ in Temple Bar Mag. Nov. 538: And, my Crikey! if you had only seen how the old codger looked.
1869		Bristol Mercury 4 Dec. 6/2: ‘Oh, crikee!’ cried Joe.
1874		J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 103: The stuffed policeman [...] several times said, ‘O, crickey!’ and inquired of the convict if his mother knew he was out.
1880		‘Frank Fane’ in Pearl 11 May 12: And, crickey! it’s fun, To see Frank Fane catching Three floggings in one.
1886		S. Watson Wops the Waif 3/1: Oh, crikee, how he did cave in, hup in that ’ere corner, to be sure.
1888		R. Barnett Police Sergeant C 21 156: Crikey! [...] she’s going straight for the house.
1891		Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) 7 Feb. 3/3: ‘O, crikey, here’s a go!’.
1897		R. Marsh Beetle 6: Got any money? — My crikey!
1898		H.H. Lewis A Gunner Aboard the ‘Yankee’ 71: Cricky! what a sell.
1900		Marvel XIV:348 July 1: ‘Crikey!’ he laughed; ‘this is all right!’.
1904		‘G.B. Lancaster’ Sons O’ Men 222: My crikey, I wouldn’t like Cummil’s knife inter me!
1906		Eve. World (NY) 12 Mar. 12/4: By cricky, it was wuth it!l.
1911		Gem 18 Nov. 15: ‘Crikey,’ said Frayne.
1913		E. Pugh Punch and Judy 111: ‘Holy crikey!’ he cried.
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Intermittent Fusser’ in Ade’s Fables 51: Very often, when the registered Dolly Grays got together for a Bon-Bon Orgy, some one would say, ‘Oh, Crickey, ain’t he the regular Cynic?’.
1917		Boy’s Own Paper XL:4 170: ‘My crikey!’ exclaimed Holbin.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 217: Boody cried angrily: – Crickey, is there nothing for us to eat?
1923		Sun. Times (Perth) 13 May 4s/7: By heavens, saire, yos, and by gum crikey!
1930		L. Lower Here’s Luck 105: ‘Ah, there you are, Jack. My crikeys, you’ve slept in this morning!’.
1934		E. Raymond Child of Norman’s End (1967) 508: Oh my crikey!
1932		(con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 68: ‘Crikey, I feel like the Governor-General’.
1939		Rover 18 Feb. 11: Cr-r-r-rikey, you should be in a girls’ school.
1940		‘Flann O’Brien’ Third Policeman (1974) 58: Well Great Crikes!
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 15: By crikey, I hadn’t thought of that. That’s corker.
1948		C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident 153: ‘Crikey! The Black Market!’ exclaimed Ted.
1954		J.E. Macdonnell Jim Brady 31: Aw, crickey, Mum, cut it out.
1962		H. Livings Nil Carborundum (1963) Act I: Oh blimey crikey, I’m a desperate man.
1965		W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 250: Danny, Garry, myself, and crikey knows who else, were on the scene hammering into the ushers.
1977		(con. 1961) J. Rosenthal Spend, Spend, Spend Scene 11: Crikey! How much did that lot come to?
1982		P. Theroux London Embassy 153: Crikey, I feel better. I needed that coffee.
1984		I. Doig Eng. Creek 295: For crike’s sake, mister.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Culture 1 Aug. 3: Myers is Canadian, but understands words such as [...] ‘crikey’.
2006		P. Carey Theft 238: By crikey, it was a long time between drinks.
2010		Sun. Times News Review 19 Dec. 13/3: Crikey, if the editor keeps pulling her bra off then life at The Lady must be even more racy.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Irish Fandango [ebook] ‘[B]y crikey, we can’t have all this bad publicity now, can we’.
2018		G. Gilmore Base Nature [ebook] ‘Oh, crikey [...] Oh wow!’.
2023		R. Hutchinson X 29 Dec. 🌐 Crikey, things are getting a bit Regency between Mercer and his Labour challenger down in Plymouth.