intj. phr. (American).—You may depend on it; to be sure! certainly! the most positive of affirmations: also ‘YOU BET your boots,’ ‘life,’ ‘bottom dollar,’ and so on. [Originally a Californian phrase: it has also been given as a name in the form of UBET to a town in the Canadian Northwest.]
1870. BRET HARTE, Poems, etc., ‘The Tale of a Pony.’
| Ah! here comes Rosey’s new turn-out! | |
| Smart! YOU BET YOUR LIFE ’t was that! |
c. 1840. Grandpa’s Soliloquy [BARTLETT].
| To little Harry, yesterday,— | |
| My grandchild, aged two,— | |
| I said, ‘You love Grandpa?’ said he, | |
| ‘YOU BET YOUR BOOTS I do.’ |
18[?]. F. OLIVE, Words and Their Uses.
| His answer’s gross irrelevance I shall not soon forget— | |
| Instead of simply yea or nay, he gruffly said, ‘YOU BET!’ |
1872. S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, ii. ‘The mosquitoes are pretty bad about here, madam!’ ‘YOU BET!’ ‘What did I understand you to say, madam?’ ‘YOU BET!’
1885. STAVELY HILL, From Home to Home, v. We … reached … the settlement of UBET.… The name … had been selected … from the slang phrase so laconically expressive of ‘you may be pretty sure I will.’
1888. Chicago Daily Inter Ocean, 7 March. Congressional Report. Mr. Boutelle. That is the bravery to which you refer? (Applause on the Republican side.) Mr. O’Ferrall. Well, sir, it is the right kind of bravery: you may BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR on that.
