holms

Noun (1)

holm (plural holms)

1. Small island, islet.
2. An island in a lake, river or estuary; an eyot.
3. (Orkney, Scotland, dialectal, chiefly West Yorkshire(?)) Any small island, but especially one near a larger island or the mainland, sometimes with holly bushes; an islet, often in Norse-influenced place-names.
4. Rich flat land near a river, prone to flooding.
   • A Brownie once lived with Maxwell, Laird of Dalswinton, and was particularly attached to the Laird's daughter, the comeliest lass in all the holms of Nithsdale.1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume II, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 170

   Synonyms:

   floodplain, bottomland, bottoms, river-meadow

Noun (2)

holm (plural holms)

1. (obsolete outside UK dialects) Common holly (Ilex aquifolium).
   • The fruitfull Oliue, and the Platane round, / The caruer Holme, the Maple, ſeeldom inward ſound.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 5
2. A holm oak (Quercus ilex), a common evergreen oak of Europe.

See all 7 meanings of holm