Meanings
- South Africawhew; phew; expressing surprise, relief, etc.
Sjoe, it was still alive! As the young man turned to pick up his stick to beat it, the snake spat its poison into the man's water gourd before slithering away.
2011, Beverley Naidoo, Aesop's Fables, page 202 more examples
We open the front door after switching off the alarms and unlocking the security gates and sigh with relief, "Sjoe, it's still all here!", relieved to find that we have not become a crime statistic, another victim.
2005, Alan Brand, Positively Alive, page 25'Sjoe, it's coming down hard, eh? It's fantastic,' she shouts and discharges an exuberant giggle. They run along the side of the house onto a big covered veranda, an entertainment area from where they can see the rain sifting down in sheets[…]
2007, Heinrich Troost, Plot Loss, page 14
Origin
Onomatopoeic, from Afrikaans spelling.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with sjoe
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Cite this entry
sjoe. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sjoe
“sjoe.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sjoe. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sjoe,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sjoe.
Source: sjoe on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.