land sakes

• for land's sake / for land's sake alive / for land's sakes / for land's sakes alive
• for the land's sake / for the land's sake alive / for the land's sakes / for the land's sakes alive
• land sake / land sake alive / land sakes alive
• land's sake / land's sake alive / land's sakes / land's sakes alive

(minced oath) Lord’s sakes

land sakes

1. (chiefly US, somewhat dated and rustic) An expression of surprise or dismay.
   • 1886, Horatio Alger, chapter 28, in Helping Himself:

     "Land sakes! I don't keep a boardin' house!"

   • 1912, Victor Appleton, chapter 31, in Lulu, Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble:

     Well, as soon as Alice finished singing, land sakes! goodness, gracious me! if a big fox didn't pop out from behind a tree.

   • 1983 June 19, Philip Shenon, “For Homesick Mississippians, a Day Full of Grits and Grins”, in New York Times, retrieved 3 November 2015:

     The fourth annual “Way Up North in Mississippi” picnic was well under way in Central Park yesterday. . . . There were twangy cries of “land sakes” and “don't that beat all” and choruses of “hi, y'all.”

   • 2015, Lori Copeland, My Heart Stood Still, →ISBN, page 41:

     “One of the McDougal young'uns? Well, land sakes—haven't seen you in a coon's age.”

• my lands
• sakes, sakes alive

• land's sake