Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a general excl.

1600		Munday & Drayton Sir John Oldcastle V viii: Zooks, do you rob your guests?
1632		Massinger Emperour of the East IV i: Zookers had I one of you zingle with this twigge, I would so veeze you.
1637		R. Brome Eng. Moor I ii: Zooks what mean you [...] Zookes now your bitch has bit me.
1656		Mennis & Smith ‘The Fart Censored in Parliament’ Musarum Deliciae (1817) 68: Swooks quoth Sir John Lee, is your arse in dotage?
1664		T. Jordan ‘The Cheaters Cheated’ in Royal Arbor 39: Zooks! what have they got there?
1678		Dryden Kind Keeper IV ii: Zookers, I cannot answer it to my Conscience.
1695		Congreve Love for Love V i: angelica: Why, you have no great reason to complain, Sir Sampson, that is not long ago. sir sampson: Zooks, but it is, madam.
1700		M. Pix Beau Defeated II ii: Zooks, Madam Rich, ’tis the best part.
1715		S. Centlivre Gotham Election I i: Zooks I love to wear my own Breeches.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy I 263: Zooks cry’d Hall, I can’t but think, / Now we are come to Wedlock brink.
1721		Penkethman’s Jests 4: Zooks what know I.
1749		Fielding Tom Jones (1959) 100: Zooks, parson, you remember how he recommended the veather o’ her to me. [Ibid.] 630: Zoodikers! she’d have the wedding to-night with all her heart.
1753		Foote Taste in Works (1799) I 20: Zooks it cost me a hundred guineas.
1753		Scots Mag. 1 Oct. 19/2: I had before made some progress in learning to swear: I had proceeded by Fegs, [...] ’pon my life, Rat it, and Zookers [...] to Demme.
1764		Foote Mayor of Garrat in Works (1799) I 179: Girl! Zooks, why ’tis a boy.
1775		Sheridan Rivals (1776) I i: Zooks! ’tis the Captain!
1785		M. Lonsdale Spanish Rivals II i: Oh, Zooks! that, and the cursed blanket business, have shook me into subdivisions.
1792		T. Hurlstone Just in Time in Sporting Mag. Dec. I 160/2: Zookers, my Lady, this is but an ill return for all I have done to please you.
1797		Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) I 325: Zooks! said the king.
c.1805		‘The Bottle’ in Jovial Songster 50: Zooks! push round the jorum, and poise high your glass.
1806		J. Gillray More Pigs than Teats [cartoon] 5 Mar. : Zookers, why they’ll drain the poor old Sow to an Otomy!
1814		I. Pocock John of Paris I i: Hey! zooks! I’m all in a flutter.
1821–6		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 300: Zookers, fellows didst thee zay.
1828		R.M. Bird City Looking Glass IV v: Zooks, sir! you are as solemn as a snapping-turtle of a cold day.
1831		Mr Mathews’ Comic Annual 25: Zooks, costermonger, the girth isn’t right.
1838		‘The Gentleman in Black’ Bentley’s Misc. IV 621: ‘Zookers!’ continued Hodge.
1841		J. Mills Old Eng. Gentleman (1847) 159: Why, zooks! if there bean’t Muster Bolton.
1854		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Oct. 113/2: Zooks, Sir, you would reverence them as martyrs.
1923		Dundee Courier 3 Oct. 4/2: The blasphemous magnificence of our ancestors who swore roundly by God’s eyes and His wounds. A more timid generation watered down such expressions to ‘ad-zooks!’ and ‘Gadzounds!’ and even to ‘Zooks!’ and ‘Zounds!’.
1935		E.F. Benson Mapp and Lucia (1984) 87: ‘Zounds and Zooks,’ she shouted.
1943		M. Constiner ‘The Turkey Buzzard Blues’ in Ruhm Hard-Boiled Detective (1977) 271: Zooks, how I love wildlife!