mark my words

• mark my word (rare)

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mark my words

1. (idiomatic) Listen to me; used before or after a statement one wishes to emphasize, especially a prediction.
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XL, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     Mrs. Bowls cautioned her lodger against venturing into the lion's den, "wherein you will rue it, Miss B., mark my words, and as sure as my name is Bowls."

• Though grammatically, mark my words is structured as a command (that is, as a clause in the imperative mood), that is not its true function in discourse.

• (listen to me): hear ye (archaic), read my lips