Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a euph. version of for God’s sake!

1929		W. Winchell On Broadway 19 Oct. [synd. col.] Listen, for gossakes, my husband has commenced to running around with other women.
1949		R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 96: What are you looking for, for gosh sake?
1953		J. Thompson Criminal (1993) 35: For gosh sake, what’d you do that for?
1953		World Oil CXXXVI 287: One party chief heard the army’s new theory and exclaimed, ‘For gosh sakes, don’t go spreading rumors like that around here’.
1962		E. Stephens Blow Negative! 213: Oh, for gosh sakes! I’m not the C.O. of this darn submarine!
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 1193: But for gosh sakes, don’t forget to shield your eyes!
1979		S. King Dead Zone (1980) 148: ‘Gosh sakes,’ Johnny said.
1986		S. King It (1987) 335: He was your brother for gosh sake. [Ibid.] 748: They’re practically new, for gosh sakes.
1988		H. Kahane Logic and Contemp. Rhetoric (5th edn) 73: Let’s assume he knew, for gosh sakes.
1995		C. Dubowski Toy Story 34: These are plastic, for gosh sakes.
2004		R.K. Vaughan Yorkville Christmas 36: I have no idea what takes him so long in there, except he smells like a . . . like a fruitcake, for gosh sake, when he comes out!
2007		B. MacDonald Safe Harbor 234: It wasn’t like he had tried to stick up a gas station, for gosh sakes.