jeepers

«jeepers» in Mova's school dictionary: a cry of surprise or shock, a mild stand-in for «Jesus» — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

phrase (interjection; also jeepers creepers)

meaning for a pupil

(euphemism, old-fashioned, US) a cry of surprise or shock, a mild stand-in for «Jesus». tree →

sense in the lessons

Used to show surprise without swearing or using a holy name; heard in old films, cartoons and from older people, sometimes jokingly. Register: old-fashioned, child-friendly; mainly US, also Australia.

examples

• Jeepers, that was close! tree →
• Jeepers creepers, where'd you get those peepers? (old song) tree →
• Jeepers, look at all that snow! tree →
• In the cartoon, the boy cries, «Jeepers!» tree →
• Chat: jeepers that's expensive tree →
• Jeepers, I forgot my lunch again. tree →

note

It is not about jeeps. It sounds old-fashioned or cute today. Plain meaning: «Wow!» or «Oh no!»; it replaces «Jesus».

In the corpora

• "Jeepers" is an old-fashioned American mild word used instead of "Jesus".

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «jeepers» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.