honest to God

1. expression Honestly; truly; genuinely. Used to emphasize the veracity of one's statement. I swear it wasn't me who broke the lamp, honest to God! Honest to God, how are we supposed to finish this project on time with half of our staff laid off? OK, yes, we knew they were planning to pull some prank, but we had nothing to do with it, Mom. Honest to god!

2. adjective Genuine; actual. In this usage, the phrase is hyphenated. It was a real, honest-to-God treasure map. I couldn't believe me eyes. What are you holding? That's not an honest-to-God diamond—is it? Is that an honest-to-goodness first edition of The Great Gatsby?

honest to God

Also, honest to goodness or Pete ; honest Injun. Truly, really, as in Honest to God, I didn't know it was yours, or Honest to goodness, we had exactly the same experience, or I promise I'll finish in time, honest to Pete, or Honest Injun, I didn't take your wallet. These colloquial assertions date from about 1900, except for honest Injun, dating from the late 1800s and today considered offensive.

honest to ˈGod/ˈgoodness

used for emphasizing the truth of what you are saying: I didn’t tell anybody — honest to God! ▶ ˌhonest-to-ˈgoodness adj. (approving) simple and good: This book is an honest-to-goodness attempt to describe life as a political leader.

honest to goodness/God/Pete

Truly; I swear this is true. These assertions of veracity date from about 1900. The earliest seems to have been honest to God, which appeared in Jack London’s Valley of the Moon (1913). Goodness and Pete are probably euphemisms for “God,” which some might have considered blasphemous. Another equivalent, now considered offensive, is honest Injun (or Indian), dating from the second half of the 1800s and popularized by Mark Twain in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

See also: god, goodness, honest, Pete, to

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