hollyboy
hollyboy is the alternative form of holly boy.
Meaning of holly boy
Noun
holly boy (plural holly boys)
- 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...
Forms of hollyboy
| plural | hollyboys |
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Questions about hollyboy
- What is hollyboy the alternative form of?
- Hollyboy is the alternative form of holly boy.
Words near hollyboy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hollyboy (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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Cite this entry: “hollyboy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hollyboy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.