Word.ws English Dictionary

holly boys

holly boys is the plural of holly boy.

Meaning of holly boy

Noun

holly boy (plural holly boys)

  1. (historical) A figure made of holly branches, representing the male principle or the male counterpart to the ivy-girl; a traditional effigy or character used in a folk custom during Shrovetide (the period immediately preceding Lent) involving groups of village boys and girls burning each other's plant effigies to playfully celebrate the end of winter.
    • [...] the Girls were burning in triumph a figure which they had stolen from the Boys, called a Holly-Boy, whilst the Boys were doing the same with another figure called an Ivy-Girl.1813, Brand, John, 1744-1806; Ellis, Henry, Sir, 1777-1869, “Valentine's Day”, in Observations on popular antiquities, chiefly illustrating the origin of our vulgar customs, ceremonies and...

Questions about holly boys

What is holly boys the plural of?
Holly boys is the plural of holly boy.

Words near holly boys in the dictionary

  1. holly berries
  2. holly berry
  3. holly blue
  4. holly blues
  5. holly boy
  6. holly boys
  7. Holly Hill
  8. Holly Hills
  9. holly oak
  10. holly oaks
  11. holly olive

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: holly boys (page history and authors); holly boy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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