"Holywell Street" meaning in English

See Holywell Street in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proper name

Etymology: Named after one of the local holy wells, “the sweet and sacred waters of St Clements Church that still survives on the Strand today, and gave Holywell Street its nickname of the Backside of St Clements”. Head templates: {{en-proper noun|head=Holywell Street}} Holywell Street
  1. (historical) A former street in central London, famed for selling pornography in Victorian times. Wikipedia link: Holywell Street, London Tags: historical Categories (topical): Named roads, Pornography
    Sense id: en-Holywell_Street-en-name-gZDnMCLW Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
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  "etymology_text": "Named after one of the local holy wells, “the sweet and sacred waters of St Clements Church that still survives on the Strand today, and gave Holywell Street its nickname of the Backside of St Clements”.",
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          "source": "w"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1857, William Acton, Prostitution considered in its moral, social, and sanitary aspects:",
          "text": "There are plenty of filthy books sold outside of Holywell-street, differing from many Holywell-street books, too, as having indecent insides as well as covers.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1877, The Academy and Literature, volume 12, page 82:",
          "text": "To impute to those who do not care for the Holywell Street literature of any time \"the Puritanic squeamishness of an extremely moral undetected Tartuffe, acting as Aristarchus,\" is to be too zealous for unrighteousness.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1891 November [1867 February 20], Charles Dickens, “Letters of Charles Dickens to Wilkie Collins”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume 83, number 498, →ISSN, page 902, column 2:",
          "text": "As regards a so-called critic who should decry such a book as Holywell Street literature, and the like, I should have merely to say of him that I could desire no stronger proof of his incapacity in, and his unfitness for, the post to which he has elected himself.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1909, The Academy and Literature, volume 75, page 583:",
          "text": "Mr. Long's solicitor was careful to explain that “The Yoke” “is not a Holywell Street book.” We can only say for it that we defy Holywell Street to produce anything so foul. Holywell Street is a much cleaner street than it would be if it sold “The Yoke” […]",
          "type": "quote"
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        "(historical) A former street in central London, famed for selling pornography in Victorian times."
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      ],
      "wikipedia": [
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      ]
    }
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}
{
  "etymology_text": "Named after one of the local holy wells, “the sweet and sacred waters of St Clements Church that still survives on the Strand today, and gave Holywell Street its nickname of the Backside of St Clements”.",
  "head_templates": [
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        {
          "ref": "1857, William Acton, Prostitution considered in its moral, social, and sanitary aspects:",
          "text": "There are plenty of filthy books sold outside of Holywell-street, differing from many Holywell-street books, too, as having indecent insides as well as covers.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1877, The Academy and Literature, volume 12, page 82:",
          "text": "To impute to those who do not care for the Holywell Street literature of any time \"the Puritanic squeamishness of an extremely moral undetected Tartuffe, acting as Aristarchus,\" is to be too zealous for unrighteousness.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1891 November [1867 February 20], Charles Dickens, “Letters of Charles Dickens to Wilkie Collins”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume 83, number 498, →ISSN, page 902, column 2:",
          "text": "As regards a so-called critic who should decry such a book as Holywell Street literature, and the like, I should have merely to say of him that I could desire no stronger proof of his incapacity in, and his unfitness for, the post to which he has elected himself.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1909, The Academy and Literature, volume 75, page 583:",
          "text": "Mr. Long's solicitor was careful to explain that “The Yoke” “is not a Holywell Street book.” We can only say for it that we defy Holywell Street to produce anything so foul. Holywell Street is a much cleaner street than it would be if it sold “The Yoke” […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
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        ],
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        ]
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        "(historical) A former street in central London, famed for selling pornography in Victorian times."
      ],
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      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Holywell Street, London"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Holywell Street"
}

Download raw JSONL data for Holywell Street meaning in English (2.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English 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.

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