heaven forbid
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
used to express a strong hope that something will not happen
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Hy vọng mạnh mẽ rằng điều gì đó sẽ không xảy ra
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: a request that heaven prevent something
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Heaven forbid we run out of food during the party
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “heaven forbid” mean?
used to express a strong hope that something will not happen Literally: a request that heaven prevent something
Is “heaven forbid” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.