zounds
Americaninterjection
interjection
Etymology
Origin of zounds
First recorded in 1590–1600; variant of 'swounds
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.
But any potential eeriness was quickly overwhelmed by the mob of cheerful Appletonians, sipping wine, munching on cheese and -- zounds -- even joking.
From Time Magazine Archive
“Why zounds, Ballard, you have turned advocate-general for all the rebels in the country,” said Berkeley, petulantly.
From Hansford: A Tale of Bacon's Rebellion by St. George Tucker
Your dirty shirt and ragged elbows are nothing to me—but zounds!
From The Fool Errant Being the Memoirs of Francis-Anthony Strelley, Esq., Citizen of Lucca by Maurice Henry Hewlett
Such new-fangled words as "eftsoon," "albeit," "wench," "soothly," "zounds," "whenas," and "sithence" had stolen into common usage, making more direct and simpler speech a jest and a byword.
From The Holy Cross and Other Tales by Eugene Field
In drat, formerly 'od rot, zounds for God's wounds, 'sdeath, odsbodikins, etc., there is probably a deliberate avoidance of profanity.
From The Romance of Words (4th ed.) by Ernest Weekley
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
