Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
😱 Senses or nerves 😲 Surprised shout
bejeezus

bejeezus

2 9.9
A person's strong feeling of fear or shock
  • noun
  • /bɪˈdʒizəs/
  • Informal
translation icon : los sentidos
  • The Republican Party used to frustrate me, but now they just scare the bejeezus out of me.
  • scare the bejeezus
  • scared the bejeezus

Examples

  • Hell, we've had tornadoes rip through these parts, scaring the bejeezus out of everyone.

    Blog text (33)

  • The surprise party totally scared the bejeezus out of her when she walked in.

  • - What the bejeezus was that?

    Night of the Living Deb (2015)

  • "Whatever, this film's gonna scare the bejeezus out of Georgia, funny or not."

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Its potential is big enough, at least, to scare the bejeezus out of mainstream economists.

    Blog text (7)

  • Human beings go straight for something that's going to scare the bejeezus out of them.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • I'm relieved to be able to more or less stop pretending that Hamilton doesn't scare the bejeezus out of me.

    Blog text (2)

  • "You just scared the bejeezus out of me!"

  • The movie was so scary that it scared the bejeezus out of everyone in the theater.

Synonyms

bejeebus
vsbejeezus
  • Informal
9.9

A strong sudden feeling of fear or shock that you get when surprised

refers to a person's senses or composure rather than an exclamation

How Shocked

bejeezus
  • Informal
2 9.9
jeez
  • UK
391 9.4
oh
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

bejeezus singular
bejeezuses plural

Morphology

bejeezus = Jesus (opaque) = be + jeezus

A minced oath deriving from the name 'Jesus' used idiomatically to refer to a person's senses or composure, not compositionally predictable.

Etymology

Bejeezus comes from that same playful use of Jesus and became a humorous name for a person's 'senses' or calm in phrases like 'scared the bejeezus out of me'. So when someone says this, they mean they were very frightened or startled and lost their calm.