so help me

Idioms

Also, so help me God. I swear that what I am saying is true, as in So help me, I haven't enough cash to pay for the tickets, or I wasn't there, so help me God. This idiom became a formula for swearing a formal oath and is still so used in courts of law for swearing in a witness (I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God). It was first recorded in 1508 as “So help me, our Lord.”

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.

See Examples For:

so help me

"I never took nothing from a looter, so help me god. Donny made every piece of that up."

From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2021

“I promise ‘impartial justice, so help me God,’ and I want to stick by that.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 22, 2019

I will take your phone and put it in my pocket, so help me!

From The Guardian ● Dec. 10, 2019

Video posted on Twitter by Johnson in March showed that the phrase "so help me God" was left out of an oath administered by Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., during a Judiciary subcommittee hearing.

From Fox News ● Sep. 3, 2019

Not my clothes, there wasn’t time, and not the Bible—it didn’t seem worth saving at that moment, so help me God.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

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