great balls of fire
- idiom
- Archaic
:
¡vaya sorpresas!
- Great balls of fire! I can't believe how fast that car was going!
Examples
-
Great balls of fire!
-
Great balls of fire! That was the most exciting game I've ever seen!
-
When she saw the surprise party, she exclaimed, 'Great balls of fire!' in astonishment.
Synonyms
24
9.9
A word people say to show mild surprise
16
8.3
A short sound people say to show surprise or excitement
5
7.5
A short phrase people say to show surprise or shock
A short shout that shows surprise or shock
An old word that people say to show surprise or strong feeling
Said to show surprise or doubt
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a conventionalized exclamatory idiom whose meaning (‘express surprise or excitement’) cannot be derived from the literal senses of 'great', 'balls', 'of', and 'fire'. Although 'great' and 'fire' connote intensity, the whole expression is culturally fixed and non-compositional, so a B1 learner who only knows the words would not reliably infer the idiomatic exclamatory meaning.
Etymology
Great balls of fire is an old exclamation whose words great, balls, and fire paint a loud picture of huge burning balls, like fireworks, and a popular 1950s song helped make the phrase famous. That's why people say Great balls of fire today to show strong 'surprise' or 'excitement'.