Sweet Mary mother of God
- idiom
- UK
:
¡Madre de Dios!
- When he heard the news, he exclaimed, "Sweet Mary mother of God, that's unbelievable!"
Examples
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Sweet Mary mother of God, that was the scariest movie I've ever seen.
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I can't believe you did that, Sweet Mary mother of God!
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Sweet Mary mother of God, I can't believe how high the bill is this month!
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Oh my, Sweet Mary mother of God! What happened here?
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Sweet Mary mother of God, I can't believe how high the bill is this month!
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Sweet Mary mother of God, that was the scariest movie I've ever seen.
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Sweet Mary mother of God, what a shocking turn of events!
Synonyms
35
8.2
An exclamation that shows strong surprise or shock
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
5
7.5
A short phrase people say to show surprise or shock
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
A short spoken phrase showing strong surprise or shock
A short cry showing surprise or shock
Words people say to show very strong surprise or shock
A short cry of surprise when something is hard to believe
A short phrase showing surprise or disbelief used by people who call on Allah
To show surprise or doubt
A word people say to show strong surprise
A short shout to show surprise or amazement
Surface Forms
Morphology
sweet + Mary + mother + of + God
The phrase functions as a fixed religious invocation used as an exclamation; its meaning 'an expression of surprise or shock' is not compositionally derived from the literal senses of 'sweet', 'Mary', 'mother', 'of', and 'God'. Without cultural/pragmatic familiarity or prior exposure, a B1 learner who knows the constituents would be unlikely to predict its exclamatory, idiomatic use.
Etymology
Sweet Mary mother of God may come from people calling on Mary (the mother of Jesus) in sudden, shocking moments. Saying her name made the feeling stronger, so the phrase came to mean 'surprise' or 'shock'.