Word.ws English Dictionary

holy mackerel

holy mackerel interjection: an expression of surprise.

Interjection

  1. (euphemistic, humorous, idiomatic) An expression of surprise.
    • ‘Holy mackerel!’ he whispered. ‘Englehorn! Driscoll! Get a look at this thing.’1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 48
    • Holy Mackerel! Here Comes the Bride!"1951, Marguerite Wallace Kennedy, chapter 3, in My Home on the Range
    Synonyms:
    wow

holy mackerel meaning in Bengali

holy mackerel in Bengali

বিস্ময় প্রকাশের একটি অভিব্যক্তি

Synonyms of holy mackerel

Origin of holy mackerel

Recorded from 1803 with uncertain origin, but possibly a euphemism for Holy Mary, with Mackerel being a nickname for Catholics because they ate the fish on Fridays. Another suggested explanation is the practice of selling mackerel on Sundays in the seventeenth century (because its quality deteriorates rapidly), so it was known as holy fish.

Questions about holy mackerel

What does holy mackerel mean?
Holy mackerel means an expression of surprise.
What is holy mackerel in Bengali?
Holy mackerel in Bengali is বিস্ময় প্রকাশের একটি অভিব্যক্তি. See Holy mackerel meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is holy mackerel?
Holy mackerel is an interjection.

Words near holy mackerel in the dictionary

  1. Holy Landers
  2. Holy League
  3. Holy Leagues
  4. Holy Loch
  5. holy macaroni
  6. holy mackerel
  7. holy man
  8. Holy Mary
  9. holy matrimonies
  10. holy matrimony
  11. holy moley

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: holy mackerel (page history and authors); holy mackerel (Bengali Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-holy mackerel.ogg.

Cite this entry: “holy mackerel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/holy_mackerel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.