as I live and breathe

Idioms

For sure, definitely, as in As I live and breathe, I've never seen a more beautiful view. This expression is generally used to emphasize the truth of a statement and has been so used since the mid-1600s, although sometimes it was put simply as as I live. However, the complete phrase was also used early on, as in Arthur Murphy's 1756 play The Apprentice (2:1): “As I live and breathe, we shall both be taken, for heaven's sake let us make our escape.”

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Julia Stiles, as I live and breathe!

From Slate

“The single great war of my life has been against fragmentation and for wholeness, against labels and for identity,” he wrote in his 1969 memoir, “As I Live and Breathe.”

From Washington Post

Now, as I live and breathe, this is pleasant: Rose, his man played and sung for him, and he, it seems, did not know when he should give over.

From Project Gutenberg

Father Coughlin, as I live and breathe!

From Time Magazine Archive

As I live and breathe and do the bidding of the lords of Florence, the accursed Medici—I have told the truth.

From Project Gutenberg

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023