"holy moley" meaning in All languages combined

See holy moley on Wiktionary

Interjection [English]

Audio: en-au-holy moley.ogg Forms: holy moley ! [canonical]
Etymology: Originally a euphemism for Holy Mary, Molly being a nickname for Mary. Compare holy Moses. Head templates: {{en-interj|head=holy moley!}} holy moley!
  1. (idiomatic, dated, humorous or euphemistic) Synonym of wow, an expression of surprise. Tags: dated, euphemistic, humorous, idiomatic Categories (topical): English minced oaths Synonyms: wow [synonym, synonym-of], holy moly

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Originally a euphemism for Holy Mary, Molly being a nickname for Mary. Compare holy Moses.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "holy moley !",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "holy moley!"
      },
      "expansion": "holy moley!",
      "name": "en-interj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "intj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English euphemisms",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "name": "English minced oaths",
          "parents": [
            "Minced oaths",
            "Euphemisms",
            "Figures of speech",
            "Rhetoric",
            "Language",
            "Communication",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English reduplications",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1892, Nathaniel Gould, Running it off; or, Hard hit:",
          "text": "\"Whew !\" he whistled, softly; \"that's curious. Same name as the lady at our place. Suppose he should be her husband. Holy moley, what a game. I've made a discovery.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of wow, an expression of surprise."
      ],
      "id": "en-holy_moley-en-intj-0na7McE3",
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "wow",
          "wow#English"
        ],
        [
          "surprise",
          "surprise#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, dated, humorous or euphemistic) Synonym of wow, an expression of surprise."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "extra": "an expression of surprise",
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "wow"
        },
        {
          "word": "holy moly"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "euphemistic",
        "humorous",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-holy moley.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/2e/En-au-holy_moley.ogg/En-au-holy_moley.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/En-au-holy_moley.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "holy moley"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Originally a euphemism for Holy Mary, Molly being a nickname for Mary. Compare holy Moses.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "holy moley !",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "head": "holy moley!"
      },
      "expansion": "holy moley!",
      "name": "en-interj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "intj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English dated terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English eponyms",
        "English euphemisms",
        "English humorous terms",
        "English idioms",
        "English interjections",
        "English lemmas",
        "English minced oaths",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English reduplications",
        "English rhyming phrases",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1892, Nathaniel Gould, Running it off; or, Hard hit:",
          "text": "\"Whew !\" he whistled, softly; \"that's curious. Same name as the lady at our place. Suppose he should be her husband. Holy moley, what a game. I've made a discovery.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Synonym of wow, an expression of surprise."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "wow",
          "wow#English"
        ],
        [
          "surprise",
          "surprise#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, dated, humorous or euphemistic) Synonym of wow, an expression of surprise."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "extra": "an expression of surprise",
          "tags": [
            "synonym",
            "synonym-of"
          ],
          "word": "wow"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "euphemistic",
        "humorous",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-holy moley.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/2e/En-au-holy_moley.ogg/En-au-holy_moley.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/En-au-holy_moley.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "holy moly"
    }
  ],
  "word": "holy moley"
}

Download raw JSONL data for holy moley meaning in All languages combined (1.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.