"whoa, Nelly" meaning in English

See whoa, Nelly in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Interjection

Etymology: From whoa! (a command to slow or stop) + Nelly (a common name for a mule or horse). A popular catch-phrase, together with "Whoa, Nellybelle" on the Roy Rogers TV show (1951–1957). Etymology templates: {{af|en|whoa|Nelly|alt1=whoa!|nocat=1|pos1=a command to slow or stop|pos2=a common name for a mule or horse}} whoa! (a command to slow or stop) + Nelly (a common name for a mule or horse) Head templates: {{en-interj}} whoa, Nelly
  1. an exclamation of surprise, especially one in response to an unexpected acceleration of speed
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "whoa",
        "3": "Nelly",
        "alt1": "whoa!",
        "nocat": "1",
        "pos1": "a command to slow or stop",
        "pos2": "a common name for a mule or horse"
      },
      "expansion": "whoa! (a command to slow or stop) + Nelly (a common name for a mule or horse)",
      "name": "af"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From whoa! (a command to slow or stop) + Nelly (a common name for a mule or horse). A popular catch-phrase, together with \"Whoa, Nellybelle\" on the Roy Rogers TV show (1951–1957).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "whoa, Nelly",
      "name": "en-interj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "intj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English imperative sentences",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English links with redundant target parameters",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2020 June 17, The Denver Gazette:",
          "text": "...the jeep’s brakes never quite worked, even when Brady uttered the catch phrases \"Whoa, Nellybelle\" or \"Whoa, Nelly.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "an exclamation of surprise, especially one in response to an unexpected acceleration of speed"
      ],
      "id": "en-whoa,_Nelly-en-intj-gfhVz5Tx"
    }
  ],
  "word": "whoa, Nelly"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "whoa",
        "3": "Nelly",
        "alt1": "whoa!",
        "nocat": "1",
        "pos1": "a command to slow or stop",
        "pos2": "a common name for a mule or horse"
      },
      "expansion": "whoa! (a command to slow or stop) + Nelly (a common name for a mule or horse)",
      "name": "af"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From whoa! (a command to slow or stop) + Nelly (a common name for a mule or horse). A popular catch-phrase, together with \"Whoa, Nellybelle\" on the Roy Rogers TV show (1951–1957).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "whoa, Nelly",
      "name": "en-interj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "intj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English eponyms",
        "English imperative sentences",
        "English interjections",
        "English lemmas",
        "English links with redundant target parameters",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2020 June 17, The Denver Gazette:",
          "text": "...the jeep’s brakes never quite worked, even when Brady uttered the catch phrases \"Whoa, Nellybelle\" or \"Whoa, Nelly.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "an exclamation of surprise, especially one in response to an unexpected acceleration of speed"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "whoa, Nelly"
}

Download raw JSONL data for whoa, Nelly meaning in English (1.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-07 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-06-01 using wiktextract (92124b4 and f1c2b61). 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.