Green’s Dictionary of Slang

cripes! excl.

a euph. for Christ! excl.

1820		Jack Randall’s Diary 25: By Crib! I saw my prime blue ruin Running like fun about the floor.
1853		W. Sketch & ‘Nelse’ The Down-Trodden 29/2: You shall have the shiners – by jiminey cripes, you shall.
1879		C.J. Kickham Knocknagow 311: ‘Be cripes!’ Barney mentally ejaculated.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 25 Apr. 11/2: [S]he gazed sorrowfully down at him who had won her maiden heart, and sighed, ‘By Cripes, Jimmy, you gettin’ cobborn fool; by’m-by you get ’im just as bad as a b—y white man.’.
1891		Maitland Mercury (NSW) 10 Nov. 7/1: By cripes, Joe, that chap came mighty near cornering me that time. [...] I’m going out, now, and get something for nervous shock.
1896		‘Frederick Benton Williams’ (H.E. Hamblen) On Many Seas 286: Cripes! what would have been the use .
1898		H.B. Vogel Maori Maid 110: By cripes! she is a toff.
1903		J. Furphy Such is Life 241: Cr-r-ripes! if I had you a couple o’ hundred mile furder back, I’d learn you manners!
1900		‘The Wayback Family’ in Sun. Times (Sydney) 2 Dec. 51/: ‘By cripes!’ said Jabez, and he went to the verandah and shot at the cat.
1906		Somerville & Ross Some Irish Yesterdays 196: But becripes! [...] he’s a fine sthrong man.
1908		E. Dyson ‘Two Battlers and a Bear’ in Lone Hand (Sydney) June 176/1: ‘By cripes!’ he ejaculated, ‘what is it?’.
1911		L. Stone Jonah 225: Cripes! he knew that fellow when he knocked about with the push.
1911		E.B. Morris Sophomore 7: Bannister. Oh, Cripes! Catch me lest I faint.
1914		E. Dyson Spats’ Fact’ry (1922) 157: ‘By cripes!’ said Crowther, with exultation.
1915		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘An Easterly Breeze’ Sporting Times 10 Apr. 1/2: Oh, Cripps!
1916		Joyce Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 197: O, Cripes, I’m drownded!
1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 71: Cripes, mate, you’ll sleep cold tonight.
1923		J. Armour Spell of the Inland 82: By cripe, boss, no fear!
1927		C. Drew ‘Grafter and Goose’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Aug. n.p.: ‘You ain’t got much hope, old girl,’ he muttered regretfully. ‘By cripes, you ain’t!’.
1929		(con. c.1904) J.B. Booth London Town 267: ‘By Cripes, I’ve got it!’ he cried.
1929		W.D. Edmonds Rome Haul 31: Cripus, Lucy! Stop it!
1930		N. Lindsay Redheap (1965) 148: ‘Cripes! Here’s your old man,’ he said.
1934		F. Nebel ‘Take It and Like It’ in Ruhm Hard-Boiled Detective (1977) 100: I never in cripes’ world thought it would be like this.
1937		D. Fuchs Low Company 154: Crawling cripes, it would be years and years.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 11: By Cripes we’re getting on!
1939		R. Chandler ‘Pearls Are a Nuisance’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 98: ‘Cripes, bud,’ he whined. ‘You got twenty years on me. That ain’t fair.’.
1940		E. Curry Hysterical Hist. of Aus. 169: And he, by cripes, got mixed up.
1942		R.L. Bellem ‘Million Buck Snatch!’ Dan Turner - Hollywood Detective Jan. 🌐 Cripes—is this Dan Turner? I didn’t know—.
c.1943		S .J. Baker Aus. Vulgarisms [t/s] 6: Christ: cripes, crikey, christawmitey, by kri', crumbs, crummy, crummies, christopher, by Christchurch, by Christmas.
1950		J. Morrison Port of Call 253: By cripes, Jim, you’re a hard doer all right!
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 18: Cripes, mate, what a joint! All over the place like a mad woman’s knitting.
1955		B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 21: Cripes! when you come to think of it, I must have been soft to ask for that water.
1955		B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 35: Come out of it, you berk [...] For cripes sake get that rubbish off your face.
1962		H. Livings Nil Carborundum (1963) Act III: One squeak, buster, and you get it. Cripes.
1969		P. Boyle All Looks Yellow to the Jaundiced Eye 53: Be cripes, it’s a plain-clothes man.
1973		(con. 1930s) F. Huelin ‘Keep Moving’ 20: Without warning he removed his boots and the narrow strips of rag wrapped round his feet. ‘By cripes! They’re a bit on the nose,’ said my mate [...] ‘What’s the Prince Albert’s for? have you got corns?’.
1975		J. Roe The Same Old Grind 17: ‘Cripes,’ said Zehyah. ‘That reminds me’.
1980		Batman No. 321 5: Cripes! What’s that maniac up to?
1997		G.V. Higgins Change of Gravity [ebook] Cripes, I sound like such a phony there.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 72: ‘People are getting in through the fire escape,’ ‘Cripes, I better go and bolt it’.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 19: Ticky was twenty-one already. Cripes!
2000		Indep. Rev. 20 Jan. 7: Cripes, perhaps I should see someone professional.
2003		‘A Betelgeusian Phrasebook’ on 2000ADOnline 🌐 Throgloopnarg quae quam quallust stralk My cripes, I’m annoyed (printable translation).
2012		Private Eye 27 July-9 Aug. 22/3: Cripes and blimey, what ho chaps.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 293: Cripes! A couple of six-syllable concepts there.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 107: ‘Cripes! Foolin around on him with a gosh-dang porch ape, son’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 123: This is not one for exhibitionists. Nothing so vulgar. Cripes no!

In exclamations