Word.ws English Dictionary

Lord willing and the creek don't rise

Lord willing and the creek don't rise phrase: barring unforeseen circumstances.

Phrase

Lord willing and the creek don't rise

  1. (US, idiomatic, informal) Barring unforeseen circumstances.
    • Near-synonym: hopefully (sentence adverbial sense)
    • Lord willing and the creek don't rise, we'll have that new barn finished in time for the harvest.
    Antonyms:
    hell no, God forbid

Synonyms of Lord willing and the creek don't rise

Antonyms

Origin of Lord willing and the creek don't rise

Statements of the form "God/Lord willing and (some other condition being met)" are ancient extensions of simple acceptance of God's will in phrases like God willing and Lord willing. "Creek" originated as a reference to creeks flooding and preventing travel, but is sometimes re-interpreted as a reference to the Creek tribe.

Questions about Lord willing and the creek don't rise

What does Lord willing and the creek don't rise mean?
Lord willing and the creek don't rise means barring unforeseen circumstances.
What part of speech is Lord willing and the creek don't rise?
Lord willing and the creek don't rise is a phrase.

Words near Lord willing and the creek don't rise in the dictionary

  1. Lord Provost
  2. Lord Provosts
  3. Lord rest his soul
  4. Lord Spiritual
  5. Lord willing
  6. Lord willing and the creek don't rise
  7. Lord's
  8. Lord's Cove
  9. Lord's Day
  10. Lord's Days
  11. Lord's house

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Lord willing and the creek don't rise (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-Lord willing and the creek don't rise.ogg.

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