for God's sake

English

Interjection

for God's sake

1. An exclamation of anger, surprise, or impatience.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:for the love of God

   For God's sake, don't scare me like that!

   Put some pants on, for God's sake!

   • 2023 January 30, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Mark Walker, quoting Joe Biden, “Biden Visits Decrepit Rail Tunnel to Promote $1 Trillion Infrastructure Law”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-01-30, Politics‎^[2]:

     “The structure is deteriorating. The roof was leaking. The floor is sinking,” Mr. Biden said in a speech in front of the tunnel, the oldest in the Northeast, where the crowd included dozens of union workers. “This is the United States of America, for God’s sake. We know better than that.”

2. Indicating a heartfelt or urgent request.

   Synonym: please

   • 1850 [1845], Edgar Allan Poe, “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar”, in The works of the late Edgar Allan Poe:

     “For God's sake!—quick!—quick!—put me to sleep—or, quick!—waken me!—quick!—I say to you that I am dead!”

   • 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde:

     ‘Utterson,’ said the voice, ‘for God's sake, have mercy!’

Usage notes

• Sometimes, though not always, made plural to for God's sakes in American usage.
• There are many variants which use euphemisms or dysphemisms in place of God, e.g. for fuck's sake.

Translations

exclamation of anger, surprise, or impatience

• Afrikaans: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: مِنْ أَجْلِ اللّٰهِ (min ʔajli llāhi), لِوَجْه اللّٰه (li-wajh allāh)
• Armenian: ի սեր աստծո (hy) (i ser astco)
• Azerbaijani: Allah xatirinə
• Bashkir: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: дзе́ля бо́га (dzjélja bóha), бо́гам прашу́ (bóham prašú)
• Bulgarian: за бо́га (za bóga), заради́ бо́га (zaradí bóga)
• Catalan: per l'amor de Déu
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 拜託 / 拜托 (zh) (bàituō)

• Czech: proboha (cs)
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: in hemelsnaam, in godsnaam, om Gods wil
• Faroese: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: Herran tähden
• French: pour l’amour de Dieu (fr), mon Dieu (fr)
• Galician: por Deus
• German: um Gottes willen, Grundgütiger (de) (exalted), Himmel nochmal, verflixt nochmal, Menschenskind
• Greek: για όνομα του Θεού (gia ónoma tou Theoú), για το Θεό (gia to Theó), για τ' όνομα του Θεού (gia t' ónoma tou Theoú)

  Ancient Greek: πρὸς θεῶν (pròs theôn), τοὺς θεούς σοι (toùs theoús soi)

• Hebrew: לְמַעַן הַשֵּׁם (he) (lemá'an hashém)
• Hungarian: az isten szerelmére (hu), az istenért
• Icelandic: í guðanna bænum
• Ido: pro amo a deo
• Irish: in ainm Dé!
• Italian: per l'amor di Dio
• Japanese: 後生だから (ごしょうだから, go-shō da kara), お願いだから (おねがいだから, o-negai da kara), 冗談じゃないよ (じょうだんじゃないよ, jōdan ja nai yo)
• Korean: 제발 (ko) (jebal), 제발 바라건대 (jebal barageondae)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: بۆ خاتری خوا (bo xatrî xwa)

• Laz: ალლაჲისე (allayise)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: for Guds skyld, Gudskjelov

• Persian: محض رضای خدا (mahz-e rezâ-ye xodâ)
• Polish: na litość boską (pl), na miłość boską (pl), rany boskie (pl), na Boga (pl)
• Portuguese: pelo amor de Deus (pt), por amor da Santa
• Romanian: în numele lui Dumnezeu
• Russian: го́споди бо́же (góspodi bóže)
• Scottish Gaelic: an ainm an Àigh
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: за̏бога

  Roman: zȁboga (sh)

• Slovak: preboha
• Spanish: por Dios, por el amor de Dios (es), pardiez
• Swedish: för Guds skull
• Tamil: தயவு செய்து (ta) (tayavu ceytu)
• Turkish: Allahını seversen, Allah aşkına, allahise (dialectal)
• Ukrainian: зара́ди бо́га (zarády bóha), ра́ди бо́га (uk) (rády bóha)
• Urdu: خدارہ (xudāra), خدا کے واسطے (xudā ke vāste), اللہ کے واسطے (allāh ke vāste), خدا کے لئے (xudā ke liye)
• Vietnamese: trời ơi (vi), ối trời ơi (vi)
• Yiddish: למען־השם (leman-hashem), לשם־שמים (lesheym-shomayem)

indicating a heartfelt or urgent request

• Finnish: Herran tähden
• Galician: por Deus
• Russian: ра́ди бо́га (ru) (rádi bóga)
• Tamil: தயவு செய்து (ta) (tayavu ceytu)