Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an excl. of shock, surprise; thus attrib.

1964		R. Abrahams Deep Down In The Jungle 222: So god damn it, he opened the door, he said, ‘What the fuck!’.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 8: Red sprawled against the wall, his mouth filling with blood. ‘What the fuck?’ he demanded.
1978		W. Diehl Sharky’s Machine 140: What the fuck!
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 211: He said ‘What the fu...’ then stopped.
1984		Flame : a Life on the Game 93: We heard an almighty scream: ‘What the fuck!!!’.
2000		T. Udo Vatican Bloodbath 7: ‘What the fuck!’ gasped John.
2003		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 8: w.t.f. – strong expletive: She gave me a C. I mean, W.T.F.?!
2006		R. Antoni Carnival 23: What the fock?
2020		D. Winslow ‘The San Diego Zoo’ in Broken 150: If Schneider calls Robbery and Lubesnick answers WTF [etc],.
2020		G. Disher Consolation 5: The snowdropping was an ongoing What the Fuck item, the commentary sometimes amusing, sometimes faintly off-colour;.

2. an excl. of resignation, acceptance, disinterest.

1960		H. Selby Jr ‘Tralala’ in Provincetown Rev. 3 80: A couple of sailors asker [sic] her if she wanted a drink and she said whatthefuck and left with them [ibid.] 81: he bounced from one bar to another [. . .] slobering [sic] drinks and soon not looking but just saying yeah, yeah, whatthefuck and [...] sometimes never seeing the face of the drunk buying her drinks.
1962		(con. WWII) J. Jones Thin Red Line (1963) 262: And if they no longer existed, it didn’t either and was no longer important. So what the fuck?
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 198: ‘Aw what the fuck?’ the coroner said.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 100: Go ahead, what the fuck, settle it at Knuckle Junction.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 155: Anyway, what the fuck? It was too late to save the record now.
2001		C. McPherson Port Authority 8: And I hadn’t even started working yet, you know? Well, what the fuck.
2017		G. Gilmore Headland [ebook] Murdoch sighed loudly. ‘What the fuck?’.