Creeping Jesus
- idiom
- NSFW
:
¡Santo cielo!
- Creeping Jesus! I can't believe you did that!
Examples
-
Creeping Jesus, that was a close call!
-
Creeping Jesus, what was that noise in the attic?
-
Creeping Jesus, I can’t believe how much the price has gone up!
-
Creeping Jesus, you almost made me spill my coffee!
-
Creeping Jesus, I can't believe how fast that car was going!
-
Creeping Jesus, you scared me half to death with that surprise!
-
Creeping Jesus, is it really time for the meeting already?
Synonyms
26
9.9
A strong phrase people say when they are very surprised or shocked
17
9.4
A short informal cry showing surprise or strong feeling
8
7.6
A short phrase people say to show surprise or disbelief
4
9.9
A short informal word people say when they feel surprise, shock, or annoyance
3
9.6
To say when you are very surprised or shocked
2
9.6
A short surprised phrase people say when they are shocked
1
9.9
A funny online spelling of Jesus used to show surprise
A strong old word people say to show surprise or shock
A short cry of surprise when something is hard to believe
A short shout that shows surprise or shock
A short shout to show surprise or amazement
A word people say to show strong surprise
To show surprise or doubt
A short spoken phrase showing strong surprise or shock
A strong cry showing surprise or shock
A shout people say when they are very surprised or do not believe something
A short phrase people say to show surprise or frustration instead of using a religious name
A short shocked cry showing disbelief about something ridiculous
Surface Forms
Morphology
Creeping + Jesus
Knowing 'creeping' (moving slowly) and 'Jesus' (the religious figure) does not let a learner predict an exclamatory oath from their literal combination. 'Creeping Jesus' is a dialectal/minced-oath interjection whose force and function as an expression of surprise are idiomatic and not compositionally derived from the parts, so a B1 learner would not infer the meaning from the constituents.
Etymology
Creeping Jesus may come from a story about a slow, quiet statue of Jesus that seemed to move or 'creep' and so startled people. So people started saying Creeping Jesus as a quick way to show 'surprise'.