Green’s Dictionary of Slang

scissors! excl.

a mild excl.

1838		Times-Picayune (N.O.) 18 Mar. 2/3: Small papers are all the rage in Louisville. Three were started in one week, bearing the titles of ‘The Goosequill,’ the ‘Fag End’ and ‘Oh Scissors’.
1846		Raleigh-Register (NC) 7 Apr. 2/4: Just as the nigger Orthello was going to put the piller on his wife’s face [...] I yelled out— ‘Oh dear! oh scissors! so loud the old theatre rung.
1847		‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 25 July 3/3: Oh, scizzors, thought I, here’s a go.
c.1858		J.H. Green Reformed Gambler 119: ‘There, I’m again at fault. I don’t know one card from another, and can’t play.’ ‘Scissors! I never seen the like! Here, young man, let me show you how.’.
1860		R. Nicholson Rogue’s Progress (1966) 263: Mr. Watson gave me a cutting look. I think he said, ‘Scissors!’.
1878		‘’Arry on Politics’ in Punch 11 May 205/2: O scissors, to read our own Telly a-towelling wood-chopping Bill.
1884		Sporting Times 1 Nov. 1/3: Scissors! but all right, I have done it.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Mar. 22/4: And he laid down on the deck an engraving of a seven-foot Arab on an 18-hand charger. ‘Scissors!’ exclaimed Warrior E, ruefully; ‘I wish I was back at the old wood carting.’.
1893		Comet (Johnson City, TN) 20 July 5/2: Scissors and jeeswax! See that Jew eat hog meat!
1899		Kipling ‘The Last Term’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 261: Oh, Scissors! What an ungodly mess you’ll make of it.
1908		Vanguard Library 31 Mar. 4: ‘Scissors!’ yelled Canary.
1912		Sun (Kalgoorlie, WA) 19 May 7/5: By scissors I was hungry.
1913		G.D. Chase ‘Lists From Maine’ in DN IV i 4: by scissors, interj. A mild oath.
1929		J.B. Booth London Town 209: ‘Oh, scissors!’ cried the producer – or words to that effect.
1936		(con. 1830s–60s) ‘Miles Franklin’ All That Swagger 321: Scissors, it was awful just after you went away. The Bank would have foreclosed, only the war saved us.
1961		‘Frank Richards’ Billy Bunter at Butlins 3: ‘Oh, scissors! Worse than that!’ groaned Bunter.