(the) Lord only knows
No one knows (except for God). Lord only knows how long it will take for my application to be processed. A: "How do you think you did on your exam?" B: "Lord only knows!" Kevin's always late, so the Lord only knows what time he will actually get here.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
Lord only knows
no one but God knows. The Lord only knows if John's marriage will be a happy one. How Mary can stay so cheerful through her terrible illness, the Lord only knows.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Lord (only) knows, the
Who knows? I certainly don’t. The locution that only God knows the answer to something dates from the eighteenth century or earlier. (It is also put as God knows and Heaven knows.) Defoe wrote (The True-Born Englishman, 1701), “Great families of yesterday we show, and lords, whose parents were the Lord knows who,” and a few decades later Swift wrote (Polite Conversation, 1738), “Lord of the Lord knows what.”
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer