yikes

[yahyks]

interjection

(an exclamation of surprise or alarm.)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for yikes

Contemporary Examples of yikes

I did a little research and now, I mean, yikes, he's the guy that's okay with letting schools forcibly pin down autistic kids.
Bill Maher Finds the Worst Congressman in America
Ana Marie Cox
October 8, 2014
And could he—yikes—actually be not just inconvenienced but actually ill?
Everything You Wanted To Know About Bob Costas’s Olympic Pinkeye
Kent Sepkowitz
February 12, 2014

Historical Examples of yikes

Yite I yikes, and boo I yikes; and my dear papa be so very angy, when I tells him all about it.'
The Maid of Sker
Richard Doddridge Blackmore
Geo had only gotten half clear of the entrance when he yelled, "Yikes," and then, "Duck!"
The Jewels of Aptor
Samuel R. Delany

British Dictionary definitions for yikes

yikes

interjection

informal an expression of surprise, fear, or alarm

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for yikes

exclamation of alarm or surprise, by 1953; perhaps from yoicks, a call in fox-hunting, attested from c.1770. Yike "a fight" is slang attested from 1940, of uncertain connection.