Lawks a-mercy is a delightfully old-school British exclamation of shock or surprise — a minced oath that softens 'Lord have mercy' into something you could say in polite company. It belongs to a golden era of Victorian and Edwardian interjections that sound almost comically theatrical today. Still used ironically or affectionately to poke fun at old-fashioned fussiness.
Lawks a-mercy, you've gone and booked us into the haunted room again!
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(UK) A minced oath for "Lord have mercy".
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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