Word.ws English Dictionary

bejesus

/bəˈd͡ʒiːzəs/

bejesus interjection: used to express surprise, annoyance, dismay, or anger.

Interjection

  1. (Ireland, colloquial) Used to express surprise, annoyance, dismay, or anger.
    • The young stinker and smeller dug in his pocket, pulled something out, and, bejesus, the young stinker and smeller was giving him something.1949, James T. Farrell, The Road Between, Vanguard Press, page 25
    • He paused, puffed on his cigarette, and struggled with a cough. Bejesus, excuse the language, but the fags'll get me in the end.1996, Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes, Scribner

Noun

bejesus (uncountable)

  1. (colloquial, euphemistic) Used for emphasis, similar to crap, shit or wits.
    • The bear scared the bejesus out of us.
    • He said you confused the bejesus out of him.

Examples of bejesus in a sentence

  • This old lady just completely slapped the bejesus out of him.
  • That screaming, flaming skull in the closet totally scared the bejesus out of me!
  • But they give me clothes for my body, and food for my belly, and tonight, I'm so happy, I could beat the living bejesus outa this goddam drum.1949, Richard Harrity, Hope is the Thing with Feathers, Dramatists Play Service, page 18:
  • Martial arts mean beating the bejesus out of people.1995, Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age […] , New York: Bantam Spectra, →ISBN:
  • The dorsal fin is one of the animal kingdom’s masterstrokes of branding; it looks like a tooth, and we don’t need to see the rest of the shark to have the bejesus scared out of us.2018, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “Jason Statham fighting a giant shark should be a lot more fun than The Meg”, in The A.V. Club:

Forms of bejesus

alternative formbejaysus
alternative formbejeebus
alternative formbejeesus
alternative formbejeezus

Origin of bejesus

A reduced form of by Jesus.

Words formed from bejesus

Words that rhyme with bejesus

Questions about bejesus

What does bejesus mean?
Bejesus means used to express surprise, annoyance, dismay, or anger.
How do you use bejesus in a sentence?
This old lady just completely slapped the bejesus out of him.
What part of speech is bejesus?
Bejesus can be an interjection or a noun.
How do you pronounce bejesus?
Bejesus is pronounced /bəˈd͡ʒiːzəs/.

Words near bejesus in the dictionary

  1. bejel
  2. bejesuit
  3. bejesuited
  4. bejesuiting
  5. bejesuits
  6. bejesus
  7. bejewel
  8. bejeweled
  9. bejeweling
  10. bejewelled
  11. bejewelling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bejesus (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bejesus.wav.

Cite this entry: “bejesus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bejesus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.