Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- interj. Used to express mild fear or surprise.
Wiktionary
- interj. humorous, slang Expressing fear.
- interj. humorous, slang Expressing empathy with unpleasant or undesirable circumstances.
Etymologies
- Origin unknown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Reagan campaigned in the South convincing white voters that their taxes were high, jobs were insecure and wages stagnant because of black workers, black welfare queens and people to whom he referred to as yikes "young bucks".”
“Hi Pat, yikes, that is something to whine about for sure.”
“He's three years younger than I am, and he liked a lot of things that I and my friends looked down on -- notably Grand Funk Railroad (they were an American band) and Emerson Lake & Palmer (yikes, that is one retro website).”
“Coming into the recent election if you were in the oil business you had to notice that every new speech then candidate Obama gave, touched on eliminating America's dependence on fossil fuels (yikes, that is your bread and butter).”
“Author's note - This is the big "yikes" part 1. Receive payment from our Customers or Clients.”
The Huffington Post: Judy Shapiro: There's Nothing "Social" About Online Social Engineering Attacks
“Just to clarify, the "yikes" is not meant to be against JRJR though I'm no fan of Claremont's writing during this woefully latter-day period but Fall of the Mutants, X-men in Australia, and Silvestri.”
Everybody’s Somebody’s Baby – Day Four | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources
“In Ohio, where NAFTA is a four letter word blamed for the loss of thousands of jobs, this is a "yikes" moment for Obama.”
“It's a "yikes" moment for Republicans on Capitol Hill, but Candy, I think it's also a "yikes" moment for John McCain, because, you know, you and I are really seeing the inverse of one another in terms of the enthusiasm on the campaign trail.”
“It seems to me this is pretty much a "yikes" moment for Republicans on Capitol Hill.”
“So, it's absolutely, as you put it very well, a "yikes" moment for congressional Republicans, because it's a symbolic punch in the gut to lose the seat that was held by the longest-serving Republican speaker in the House, and that's Denny Hastert's seat.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘yikes’.
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one word exclamations
keep it rated G please, thanks!
( open list, randomness )zoiks, sheesh, gosh, shucks, jeez, woot, heck, thunderation, oops, gadzooks, what, hey and 90 more...
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Onomatopoetic
words (seemingly) formed in imitation of a natural sound
plash, guff, woof, splash, crash, pow, crack, bang, whoosh, whizz, whallop, fizz and 116 more...
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sound (loud)
words for loud sounds
( open list, descriptive, randomness )
also see:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/onomatopo...crash, thud, bump, thump, boom, smash, explode, roar, scream, screech, short, yell and 168 more...
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You Scared Me
frightened, jumped, skiddish, caught by surprise, freaked, startle, fear spasm, fear monger, eeek!, egad zeus!, yikes, started
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Grunts, Sounds, Calls
Aah, achoo, ack, ah, aha, ahem, ah-ha, aw, baa, bah, blah, boo and 64 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
grabbable, retuiteando, leaving, fantastic, absolutely, kurwa, hella, ridic, underpass, hate, interlude, plush and 2369 more... -
Words with Method to their Madness
Patterned words! Any word that alternates vowels and consonants with no consonants next to each other, and no vowels next to each other. (And a letter limit of no less than 5)
eleven, every, vowel, lemon, alibi, hopes, limit, cures, caravan, emirate, united arab emirates, honorificabilitud... and 114 more...
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Jacqueline's Words
glittery, horny, amazing, wanderlust, forlorn, lustily, nonchalant, cool, passive, submissive, roundabout, carousel and 558 more...
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ginnylev's Words
neuroplasticity, repudiate, scintilla, ruminate, tautology, ombudsman, exigent, filibuster, grace, ambidextrous, amends, disclosure and 623 more...
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D's Words
If you could "tag" people....
allemande, bebop, excessive, assiduous, bailiwick, bandana, befuddle, busker, disconcerting, clothespin, cogitate, cultivar and 55 more...
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exclamations
expletive, blimey, okey dokey, whatchamacallit, oops, ooh, sheesh, lo and behold, phew, golly, bam, yikes and 13 more...
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Informal
canary, wishy-washy, brummie, veep, kludge, beaut, moniker, humongous, tushie, ponce, Chinaman, cocky and 44 more...
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just saying
yeah, alas, aargh, bah, because, boo, certainly, damn, geez, grrr, hey, lame and 34 more...
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dakegra's Words
awry, golly, yikes, fubar, borked, boink, zyzygy, schadenfreude, caffeine, blip, splorfle
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Onomatopoeia That Best Describes You:...
All entries here have been collected from Wordie user profiles.
clang!, arf, bri bri bri, apchoo, kertwang, gush, gurgle, bungle, i..., fwap!, oopps!!, bling, vootlewurdle, poink! and 78 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for yikes.

cricket You know, like "ouch," "oh my god," "uh oh," that type of thing. Feb 2, 2008