God forbid
22
6.6
- idiom
- Informal
:
ojalá que no
- And if there are bad times, God forbid, we'll work that out too, but together.
- God forbid, something happens
- God forbid, you should die
- God forbid, I get
You know, if he died, God forbid, people would say, I'm so sorry for your loss.
- You know, if he died, God forbid, people would say, I'm so sorry for your loss.
- It wasn't whether we one of us gets injured or God forbid, killed.
- So if my blender breaks or my washing machine breaks or God forbid my phone breaks, I don't know what to do with it.
- That will be my hardest when one of my parents, my wife, my children, my siblings or their spouses, if God forbid one of them were to die.
- You know, we'll just, you know, God forbid, you know, she lose her child because we wanted a damn Mcflazzle.
- Like that somehow, you know, I don't want to get infected because of the kids, like because God forbid something happens to the kids.
- She's great hair, but say, God forbid I was losing my hair.
- So much of what I say to people is, God forbid, your first date should be that.
- Like if it all ended, you know, if God forbid I'd say welling had a great life.
- Yeah, but God forbid I needed them, you know, they're there.
- But God forbid, God forbid Palestinians have any kind of similar sentiment.
- My last tweet would be Oh my God, God forbid.
Examples
-
What if, God forbid, you go to prison?
Fiction book (1990) -
Please never call me or text me or, God forbid, come over to my house anymore.
-
Now we are well set up for months if anything were God forbid to go wrong.
-
And God forbid you should break anything.
Fiction book (2001) -
No management, no agent, nobody in Hollywood will take me on if for God forbid, something happens.
-
God forbid, what would happen if you had to go to prison?
-
God forbid that in all my life I should ever ask again.
Fiction book (1992) -
To the students, I say, God forbid your iPod has been taken, you will be devastated.
-
God forbid something happened to you, I don't know what your mother and I would do.
-
What if, God forbid, you have to miss the wedding?
Synonyms
3
7.7
I hope nothing bad happens
To say you do not want something bad to happen
May God stop something bad from happening
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally combines 'God' (a deity) and 'forbid' (to prevent), so a learner who knows both words can infer a wish that God prevent something — i.e. expressing hope that a bad event will not happen. This formulaic interjection has clear cross-linguistic parallels (e.g. Spanish 'Dios no lo quiera'), making its meaning recoverable for a B1 learner.
Etymology
God forbid comes from people using a quick prayer to ask God to stop something bad from happening. So, when we say God forbid today, we are saying 'I hope that does not happen'.