Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Christ n.

also the Christ

a general abstract intensifier, implying quantity, strength, essence etc; synon. with hell, the phr. (3) .

1945
1950196019701980
1989
[US]E. Hemingway letter 14 Nov. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 604: I wish the christ I owned him.
[US]E. Hoagland Circle Home 213: ‘You heard me! Get up here! [...] I don’t care if you’re buck-nekkid, get the Jesus Christ up here!’.
[Aus]D. Ireland Glass Canoe (1982) 75: I lob home, and next thing she’s abusing Christ outta me.
[US]S. King Christine 484: I’m going to get into Christine and we’re going to motivate right the Christ out of this one-timetable town.
[US]R. Atkinson Long Gray Line (1990) 154: A promise to ‘clobber the living Jesus Christ out of you.’.

In phrases

bash the Christ out of (v.) (also beat the Christ out of, belt...)

to beat severely.

1954
196019701980
1982
[Aus]J.E. Macdonnell Jim Brady 154: I’ll belt the Christ outa yer!
[US]E. Hoagland Cat Man 234: I’ll beat the living Christ out of him, playing me for a sucker.
[Aus]D. Ireland Burn 16: Gunner bashed Christ out of him. Knocked him silly.
[Aus]P. Radley My Blue-Checker Corker 45: ‘Look, bastard-face, if you don’t keep away from my sheila I’ll belt Christ outa her face till she looks like a hatful of maggots’.
Christ and the two apostles (n.)

(N.Z. gay) the male genitals.

[NZ]W. Ings ‘Trolling the Beat to Working the Soob’ in Int’l Jrnl Lexicog. 23:1 64: During sex a man made contact with Christ and the two apostles (penis and testicles) and a sex worker who limits himself to passive sex is known as an angel.
to Christ (also to Christmas, to krist)

a general intensifier; usu. as wish to Christ.

1922
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1989
[Ire]Joyce Ulysses 91: I wish to Christ he did!
[UK](con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 4: Wish to Christ they’d get a move on.
[US] in W.C. Fields By Himself (1974) 446: I hope to Christ the next cold I get knocks me off and then you will know what real hardship is.
[US]H. Miller Tropic of Cancer (1963) 107: I wish to Christ I could stop thinking about myself.
[UK]H. Brown Walk in Sun 121: I wish to Christ we had a mortar.
[UK]J. Maclaren-Ross Of Love And Hunger 170: I made a bolt for the exit. I hoped to Christ Sukie hadn’t played another double shuffle on me.
[US]R. Chandler Little Sister 103: I hope to Christ this doesn’t mean Sunny Moe Stein’s mob have started in business again.
[Aus](con. 1944) L. Glassop Rats in New Guinea 174: I wish to Christ I was going with you.
[US]H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 117: He wished to krist he could take the sounds and shove them up her ass.
[US]‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 22: I have wished to Christ [...] that the lunatic lovers had left me in Rockford.
[US]S. King Stand (1990) 257: I’m getting to Christ out of here. [Ibid.] 918: I wish to Christ I hadn’t left him behind.
[UK]F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 121: They didn’t know me and I hoped to Christmas that was the way it was going to stay.
[US]W. Murray Tip on a Dead Crab 208: I swear to Christ I’ll go straight from here to the stewards and the police.
[UK]M. Amis London Fields 26: I wished to Christ I could do Keith’s voice.

Proper name in slang uses

In compounds

Christ-bitten (adj.)

(US) a general derog. description, lit. ‘bitten by Christ’, i.e. fanatically religious.

1927
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2002
[US]D.W. King L.M.8046 144: ‘God damn those Christ-bitten .... Hope to hell we get another chance at them before we clear out!’.
[US]Dos Passos Adventures of a Young Man 257: The boys in Slade Country was f—d and now here was this christbitten hellbound party line f—g them proper.
McHenry & Myers Home Is Sailor 95: She’s Christ-bitten. She thinks I need saving.
[US]L.F. Cooley Run For Home (1959) 169: Nuthin’ to do and nuthin’ to drink on Sunday in this Christ-bitten place!
Globe and Mail (Toronto) 3 Aug. F3: That was when his father, although not Catholic, sent his son to a Jesuit high school to live with what Mr. Moriarty now calls ‘the Christ-bitten winos’.
Christ-killer (n.) (US)

1. a derog. term for a Jew [the teaching by trad. Christianity that the Jews killed Christ].

1830
1850190019502000
2018
Cobbett's Weekly Political Register 4 Dec. 895/2: The bloody Jews, the Christ-killing rascals [...] the Christ-killers do not remember that Pitt had paper money at will.
‘Poacher’s Daughter’ in Lloyd’s Companion 10 Dec. 4/1: ‘Will you be silent, Christ-killer ? Comrades, twist me this old scoundrel's neck’.
Sentinel (Sydney) 9 Dec, 2/3: ‘Better that we should eat black bread [...] from a wooden platter, than bury our noses in the State trough, from which the Christ-makers of the Mass house, and the Christ-killers of the Synagogue alike receive their mess of pottage’.
Manchester Gardian 17 Apr. 6/4: The petition at the Town hall was carried by ‘catter-wauling mountebanks and hireling Christ-killers’.
[US]Knickerbocker 46 629: Often have we heard a Jewish child in our city sneered at by other urchins as a ‘little Christ-killer’.
[UK](con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor IV 223/1: They [i.e. ‘bunters’] was mostly Christ-killers, and chousing a Jew was no sin.
in Glanz Jew in Old Amer. Folklore (1961) 10: Get out, you bloody Christ-killer.
[Aus]Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 2: Chousing a Christkiller - Swindling a Jew (there used to be a prevailing superstition that it’s no sin.) Or, Having a Christkiller.
[UK]J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
[US]S. Anderson Dark Laughter 278: Boys who were ragging one of the Jewish boys. They followed him along a street shouting, ‘Christ-killer!’.
[US](con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 130: ‘Sa-ay, Christ Killer!’ Johnny said to his man.
[US]J. Conroy World to Win 146: A damned Christ-killer kike asking all sorts of questions.
[US]E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 41: I called him a Christ-killer and a few other things.
[US]S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 12: We were chased, stoned, bitten and beat up for Christ-killers.
H. Teichmann George S. Kaufman, An Intimate Portrait n.p.: You goddamn Christ killer.
[US]T. Fontana ‘God's Chillin’ Oz ser. 1 ep. 3 [TV script] You don’t have a problem with me being Jewish? [...] You don’t think of me as a Christ-killer or anything like that?
Dean’s World 19 Mar. [blog] You know, I’ve been around Christians of just about every stripe my entire life, and I have never in my entire life heard the words ‘Christ killer’ come out of anyone but Jews.
[US]T. Pluck ‘Hot Rod Heart’ in Life During Wartime 106: ‘Stop calling him kid, Christkiller [...] It’s too bad the Krauts didn’t get all of you’.

2. a noisy political orator [the majority of such orators were self-proclaimed atheists].

[US]L. Adamic Laughing in the Jungle 208: I stopped to listen to soap-boxers [...] and to the argufyers or ‘nuts’ in Pershing’s Park and on the Plaza, most of them professional atheists, or ‘Christ-killers,’ full of sound and fury.

In phrases

when Christ was a corporal

(US) a very long time ago.

1928
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2013
G. Boas Never Go Back 176: [W]hen Harper protested that after all he had the rudiments on which to build, he answered, ‘Why, what I know was old stuff when Christ was a corporal in the Jerusalem Hoosars’.
Camden News (AK) 8 Dec. 21/1: Some of the gripes about Army life, first heard ‘when Christ was a corporal,’ will probably never change.
[US](con. 1970) J.M. Del Vecchio 13th Valley (1983) 113: Egan was a cherry way back when Christ was a corporal.
M. Rausenberger Somalia Journal [ebook] He looked like he was in the military when Christ was a corporal so l figured he had some rank.
S.M. Mahoney Fighting for Afghanistan [ebook] ‘Okay, here we go again. This goes back to when Christ was a corporal’.

As an oath in combs. and excls.

In derivatives

Christless (adj.)

(US) lit. god-damned adj.

1912
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2006
[US]R.C. Murphy Logbook for Grace (1948) 16 July 14: That usually leads to a gentle admonition [...] that he’ll be goddamned if he’ll stand for one such word from any Christless bastard on board, afore or abaft the mainmast.
[US]‘F. Bonnamy’ Blood and Thirsty (1952) 45: I’ve been tryin to figger for years how t’git that Christless picture down.
[US]‘Richard Hooker’ M*A*S*H 108: We wouldn’t be going out of our way for a Christless Regular Army Colonel if we didn’t mean it!
Lewis How to Talk Yankee n.p.: I never did think we’d get that Christless truck out of the ditch [DARE].
in N.E. Folklore XXVIII (1988) 43: He got this christless big book and opened it up [HDAS].
www.izzlepfaff.com 17 May [blog] Get away from me, you Christless little choad.

In compounds

Christ almighty (adj.)

a general intensifier.

1925
1930194019501960
1961
[US]Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 387: Jesus Kerist Almighty look at a guy who’ll give up a good job clerkin [...] to sign on as messboy in Davy Jones’ own steam yacht.
[US]C. Cooper Jr Weed (1998) 119: The Christalmighty work he had to do.
Christ-awful (adj.) (also Christ-all) [var. on God-awful adj.]

(orig. US) especially appalling; also as excl.

1947
19501955
1957
[US]N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 83: The fellas begun giv’n me a Christ-awful razzin’ then.
[US](con. 1943) A. Myrer Big War 192: Heading for what Christ-all horror we can’t imagine.

In phrases

In exclamations

Christ almighty! (also Christ al-bleeding-mighty! Christ allbloodymighty! Christ all hell! Christ all hemlock! Christamighty! )

a common blasphemous excl.

1928
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2010
[US] in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) II 638: The moonlight lit on the nipple of her tit, / Oh, Jesus Christ, almighty.
[US](con. 1900) L. Riggs Green Grow the Lilacs I iv: Christ all hemlock!
[US]B. Appel Brain Guy 148: Christ all hell, what sort of life was Bill leading?
[Aus]D. Stivens Tramp and Other Stories 49: Christ all bloody mighty! The little bitch!
[Aus]K. Tennant Battlers 118: Christamighty! [...] Anyone ’ud think I was trying to pinch the filling from your back teeth instead of doing you a good turn.
[Aus]Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 331: ‘Christallbloodymighty!’ Lofty bellowed.
[US]M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 112: Christalmighty, if you don’t know, how the hell am I s’posed to tell you?
[US]D. Goines Swamp Man 145: ‘Christ Almighty, Sheriff,’ Sonny Boy yelled.
[US]T. Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities 272: Christ almighty . . . I’ve got to think for a second.
[UK](con. 1950s) J. Byrne Slab Boys [film script] 101: Christ Almighty, Phil, it’s no’ every day somethin’ as tragic as this happens.
[UK]K. Waterhouse Soho 78: Oh, Christ al-bleeding-mighty, all he needed.
[US]Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 317: Jesus fucking Christ. if she knows about it, every bad guy in the neighborhood must know about it.
Christ on a bike! (also Christ on a bicycle! ...bleeding toboggan! ...buckboard! ...Harley! ...fire-engine! ...a pony!)

a mild excl.

1960
1960197019801990200020102020
2023
[US]W. Styron Set This House on Fire 67: Christ on a bleeding toboggan!
[UK]J. Gielgud letter 10 Oct. in Mangan John Gielgud’s Letters (2004) 268: Christ on a bicycle!
[US]J. Kirkwood There Must Be a Pony! 152: ‘Christ-on-a-buckboard,’ Sally Knapp says.
[UK](con. 1968) P. Theroux My Secret Hist. (1990) 337: ‘Christ on a bike!’ Potter cried.
[US]C. Hiaasen Native Tongue 155: Christ on a Harley, who wants goddamn lizards!
[UK]A. Close Official and Doubtful 186: Christ on a bike, I forgot about the battered sisters.
[UK]‘Squee Rat’ ‘This Sordid Little Business: The Furry Manifesto’ 🌐 If you don’t think you’re the astrally projected soul of a wolf trapped in a human body, or you don’t answer the phone with a ‘meow,’ you’re not furry. Yep. Don’t you feel terribly inferior now? Christ on a fire engine, what some people will try and force on you.
[UK]G. Turner Guardian 25 June 🌐 Christ on a flippin’ bike! England were so, so lucky there.
[Scot]T. Black Ringer [ebook] n.p.: Christ on a bike, do I have to do everything around here?
[US]S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 18: ‘Christ on a pony,’ he said, ‘I call that pretty’.
[Ire]L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 17: ‘Christ on a Bike’ T-shirts.
[UK]M. Herron Secret Hours 314: ‘Christ on a fucking bicycle. He’s got teeth. What else do you need to know?’.
Christ on a crutch! (also Christ on a cracker! ...raft! ...stretcher! ... on crutches! Jesus on a moped!)

a mild excl.

1948
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2023
[US](con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 10: Christ on a crutch! Right off the farm, a barefoot boy.
[US]H.S. Thompson letter 31 Mar. in Proud Highway (1997) 113: Christ on a crutch, man: if you people are as hard up for writers as you appear to be, then you need help in the worst way!
[US](con. early 1950s) J. Peacock Valhalla 30: Oh Jesus Christ on a wobbly crutch! [Ibid.] 54: ‘Jesus H. Christ on a stretcher!’ Giff exploded.
[UK](con. WWII) B. Aldiss Soldier Erect 132: Christ-on-fucking-crutches!
[US]L. Kramer Faggots 242: Oh, Jesus H. Christ on a crutch, whatever have we done!
[US]R.M. Brown Southern Discomfort (1983) 79: Jesus H. Christ on a raft.
[US](con. 1969–70) D. Bodey F.N.G. (1988) 107: Jesus fuckin’ Christ on a warped yellow-pine crutch.
[US]L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 50: Christ Jesus on a bloody fuckin’ crutch [...] how long was this guy left like this?
[US]D. Hecht Skull Session 205: Christ on a crutch! Place is a mess, isn’t it?
[UK]K. Waterhouse Soho 24: Christ on crutches, was she up for it or was she up for it?
[UK]G. Iles Turning Angel 370: ‘Christ on a crutch,’ he says in his heavy drawl.
[UK]Eve. Standard 20 Dec. 15/3: Dior perfume. Jesus on a moped.
[US]T. Robinson Rough Trade [ebook] ‘Christ on a crutch’.
Twitter 27 May 🌐 Christ on a crutch, this [book] is hardcore in the best possible way. Bleak as with razor sharp prose.
[Aus]A. Nette Orphan Road 153: Christ on a crutch, but there’s one mongrel I can see in this room, thought Hardigan.
[US]J. Jackson Pineapple Street 1340: ‘Christ on a cracker.’ She showed Darley the screen, her father and brother holding the small brown bat in a net, victorious.
for Christ’s sake!

see separate entry.