holy roller

Syllables: Ho·ly Roll·er/ˌhəʊ̯.li ˈɹəʊ̯.lə(ɹ)//ˌhəʊ̯.liː ˈɹəʊ̯.lə/

holy roller is the alternative letter-case form of Holy Roller.

Noun capitalized: Holy Roller

Holy Roller (plural Holy Rollers)

(derogatory, informal, usually) A member of any Christian church characterized by ecstatic behaviour; especially of the Pentecostal Church.
- I attended a worship service where I was astounded to see holy rollers convulsing on the floor and speaking in tongues.
- Holy Rollers and Jumpers come out / And they holler, they jump and they shout / Give your money to Jesus, they say / He will cure all diseases today1911, “The Preacher and the Slave”, Joe Hill (music)
Synonyms:

Holy Jumper
(derogatory, informal) A devoutly religious Christian person.
- She's such a holy roller that she steers every conversation around to the joys of religion.

From the practice of some devout Pentecostals who would roll on the floor of the church in response to the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

What does holy roller mean?: Holy roller means a member of any Christian church characterized by ecstatic behaviour; especially of the Pentecostal Church.
What is holy roller the alternative letter-case form of?: Holy roller is the alternative letter-case form of Holy Roller.
What part of speech is holy roller?: Holy roller is a noun.
How do you pronounce holy roller?: Holy roller is pronounced /ˌhəʊ̯.li ˈɹəʊ̯.lə(ɹ)/.
What is the plural of holy roller?: The plural of holy roller is holy rollers.

Adapted from Wiktionary: holy roller (page history and authors); Holy Roller (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Holy Roller.wav.

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