as I live and breathe

Idioms and Phrases

For sure, definitely, as in As I live and breathe, I've never seen a more beautiful view . This expression is generally used to emphasize the truth of a statement and has been so used since the mid-1600s, although sometimes it was put simply as as I live . However, the complete phrase was also used early on, as in Arthur Murphy's 1756 play The Apprentice (2:1): “As I live and breathe, we shall both be taken, for heaven's sake let us make our escape.”