Meanings
- not comparablePolytheistic form of of by God.
“But you’re being so horrible…” “Are you whining? By the gods, if your family could see you now.”
2009 December 4, Jay McKiernan, chapter 6, in The Twins: A Novel (The Tales of Agramon; 1), Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 1343 more examples
What! you shun / An old friend, Balbus? No! It was not I! / No! by the gods! I never gave consent / To those red days of massacre!
1915, Stephen Vincent Benét, “The Last Banquet [[Quintus] Sertorius Speaks, b. c. 72]”, in Five Men and Pompey: A Series of Dramatic Portraits, Boston, Mass.: The Four Seas Company, →OCLC, page 12He lifted eyes half-wild with horror in a face the color of yellow mud. “The child, Lady! By the gods, where is the child?”
2000 February 12, Sharon Lee, Steve Miller, “Local Custom”, in Pilots Choice, Atlanta, Ga.: Meisha Merlin Publishing, published February 2001, 2nd printing (May 2001), →ISBN, chapter 16, page 124‘Let me up and I’ll explain. Please, I can’t speak. I won’t try to run from you.’ / ‘Oh yes, by the gods, you’ll explain!’ […] ‘And you’ll help me get back to Earth, or I’ll kill you! Tell me, Auriel!’
2000 March 31, Freda Warrington, “Falthorn”, in The Sapphire Throne (The Jewelfire Trilogy; 2), London: Earthlight, →ISBN, page 107
Cite this entry
by the gods. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/by%20the%20gods
“by the gods.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/by%20the%20gods. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “by the gods,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/by%20the%20gods.
Source: by the gods on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.