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HOLY
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Irregular inflected forms: holier , holiest
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A sacred place of pilgrimage
Synonyms:
holy; holy place; sanctum
Classified under:
Nouns denoting spatial position
Hypernyms ("holy" is a kind of...):
place; spot; topographic point (a point located with respect to surface features of some region)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Belonging to or derived from or associated with a divine power
Classified under:
Similar:
beatified; blessed (Roman Catholic; proclaimed one of the blessed and thus worthy of veneration)
Blessed (worthy of worship)
consecrated; sacred; sanctified (made or declared or believed to be holy; devoted to a deity or some religious ceremony or use)
hallowed; sacred (worthy of religious veneration)
Also:
consecrate; consecrated; dedicated (solemnly dedicated to or set apart for a high or sacred purpose)
sacred (concerned with religion or religious purposes)
Attribute:
holiness; sanctitude; sanctity (the quality of being holy)
Antonym:
unholy (not hallowed or consecrated)
Derivation:
holiness (the quality of being holy)
Context examples:
I begin to think so, Mr. Holmes, but when I thought of all the precaution I had taken to shield this girl—for I loved her, Mr. Holmes, and it is the only time that ever I knew what love was—it fairly drove me mad to think that she was in the power of the greatest brute and bully in South Africa—a man whose name is a holy terror from Kimberley to Johannesburg.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
A deficiency of blood coagulation factor IX inherited as an X-linked disorder. (Also known as Christmas Disease, after the first patient studied in detail, not the holy day.) Historical and clinical features resemble those in classic hemophilia (HEMOPHILIA A), but patients present with fewer symptoms.
(Hemophilia B, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
He tried to make us act plays and to enter into masquerades, in which the characters were drawn from the heroes of Roncesvalles, of the Round Table of King Arthur, and the chivalrous train who shed their blood to redeem the holy sepulchre from the hands of the infidels.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Very soon, my—that is, Miss Eyre: and you'll remember, Jane, the first time I, or Rumour, plainly intimated to you that it was my intention to put my old bachelor's neck into the sacred noose, to enter into the holy estate of matrimony—to take Miss Ingram to my bosom, in short (she's an extensive armful: but that's not to the point—one can't have too much of such a very excellent thing as my beautiful Blanche): well, as I was saying—listen to me, Jane!
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
“Do you know, I am filled with a strange uplift; I feel as if all time were echoing through me, as though all powers were mine. I know truth, divine good from evil, right from wrong. My vision is clear and far. I could almost believe in God. But,” and his voice changed and the light went out of his face,—“what is this condition in which I find myself? this joy of living? this exultation of life? this inspiration, I may well call it? It is what comes when there is nothing wrong with one’s digestion, when his stomach is in trim and his appetite has an edge, and all goes well. It is the bribe for living, the champagne of the blood, the effervescence of the ferment—that makes some men think holy thoughts, and other men to see God or to create him when they cannot see him.”
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
“Three, most holy father,” the brother answered in a low and quavering voice.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
This is your best and most holiest office.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
His eyes were shining like an angel's, and his face was transfigured, purged of all earthly dross, and pure and holy.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
To these were joined several holy persons, as part of that assembly, under the title of bishops, whose peculiar business is to take care of religion, and of those who instruct the people therein.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
He is without, most holy father.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
