Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a mildly blasphemous oath.

1696		G. Granville She-Gallants I i: Adzooks, adzooks, the Town swarms with them; one is call'd Vaunter, and the other Sir Iohn Airy, Fops, with great Estates.
1696		G. Granville She-Gallants II i: Adzookers, when I have such Servants they shall never be seen without broken heads.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy II 119: Adzooks ’t has half made me wish I were a Man.
1749		Smollett (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas I 216: Adzooks! my dear.
1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 597: Adsooks! ye baggage [...] you shouldn’t want a smock nor a petticoat neither, if you could have a kindness for a true-hearted sailor.
1764		Foote Mayor of Garrat in Works (1799) I 178: Adzooks, he is wise enough to puzzle the parson.
1778		‘Arthur o’ Bradley’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1891) VII:2 321: ‘Adzooks, mother!’ said he, ‘I can have as good as she.’.
1784		Norfolk Chron. 31 Jan. 2/4: Adzooks! How is this?
1785		M. Lonsdale Spanish Rivals II ii: Ad’s wooks! — what noise is that?
1792		C. Dibdin ‘Dicky Ditto’ Buck’s Delight 74: Adzooks, old crusty, / Why so rusty, / Stupid queer and mumpy?
1794		Sporting Mag. Mar. III 339/2: Adzookers, sly sawney, don’t look so demure.
c.1800		‘Ploughman’s Glory’ in Holloway & Black (1975) I 214: Adzooks they look rarely I vow and declare.
1809		Morn. Advertiser (London) 5 Aug. 3/3: Adzooks, I have something else to do than talk about prayers and sermons.
1814		Morn. Chron. (London) 11 Nov. 4/1: Adzooks! they look so funny.
1826		I. Pocock Woodstock I ii: Me to Cromwell! adzooks, Mark.
1834		R. Barham ‘Lines Left at Hook House’ Ingoldsby Legends (1847) 153: Add-zooks! / There’s Theodore Hook’s.
1842		Bradford Obs. 5 May 18/3: ‘What! don’t you know who Sir Robert [Peel] is? [...] He’s the Prime Ministrer.’ ‘A prime minister,’ ejaculated the knowing old tyke, ’adzooks, man’.
1857		Westmeath Indep. 21 Nov. 4/3: Adzooks, and haven’t I been outwitted of my land, gentlemen.
1868		Watford Obs. 20 June 2/5: There was a time when I [...] could build a ship [...] But, adzooks, whewre am I now, when so many rivals plough all around.
1887		Lichfield Mercury 23 Sept. 8/1: Adzookers! A local farmer [...] offers 20 acres of capital ‘fog’.
1888		Derby Mercury 4 Jan. 12/4: Adzooks, I’ll not help you.
1899		Taunton Courier 25 Oct. 4/1: Adzooks says Dick [...] If you’ll be married to me [...] I’ll feed you fatter than any sow.
1901		Buckingham Advertiser 11 May 3/4: Adzooks! I’ll move from you.
1916		Day Book (Chicago) 9 Feb. 23/2: Ad zooks! Odds bodkins; and then some!