Idiom
I'll be
Meaning
Expressing surprise.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Well, I'll be! You actually finished the project early.”
“When he saw his old friend walk into the room unexpectedly, he exclaimed, "Well, I'll be!"”
“Upon discovering that the long-lost manuscript had been hidden in the attic all these years, the professor whispered, "Well, I'll be."”
Examples
simple
“Well, I'll be! You actually finished the project early.”
contextual
“When he saw his old friend walk into the room unexpectedly, he exclaimed, "Well, I'll be!"”
complex
“Upon discovering that the long-lost manuscript had been hidden in the attic all these years, the professor whispered, "Well, I'll be."”
Origin
Presumably formed through anapodoton as a shortened version of the phrase *I’ll be damned*. The latter part of the expression is omitted, leaving the consequence of the speaker's surprise understood rather than stated.
Key words
Related idioms
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