Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use holly in a sentence

27 example sentences · noun

Holly means any of various shrubs or (mostly) small trees, of the genus Ilex, either evergreen or deciduous, used as decoration especially at Christmas. Example: “We'll deck the halls with boughs of holly.”

Examples of holly by meaning

nounAny of various shrubs or (mostly) small trees, of the genus Ilex, either evergreen or deciduous, used as decoration...

  • We'll deck the halls with boughs of holly.
  • Have a tree or two the witches particularly like, such as the alder, larch, cypress and hemlock; then, to counteract any possible evil effects, there must be a holly, yew, hazel, elder, mountain ash or juniper.1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 273

More sentences with holly

  • Ericaceous plants include camellias, hollies, hydrangeas, and maples as well as members of the Ericaceae.From the entry ericaceous
  • As a Christian, we refer to them as the holly lily crowd.2023 September 25, @DavidBranscum, Twitter, archived from the original on 20 Apr 2025. From the entry holly-lily
  • If your holly never has any berries, that's probably because it's a male.2014 December 12, Ken Thompson, “Do plants have a gender? Most plants are hermaphrodite, but not all – and an interesting situation arises…. From the entry dioecious
  • Holly flung herself on an upholstered sofa, her cute retro dress floofing around her.2014, Amylynn Bright, chapter 12, in Finish what We Started, Don Mills, Ont.: Carina Press, →ISBN. From the entry floof
  • The mall was filled with Christmas delight; Mistletoe, holly and Santa were a welcoming sight.2011, Blossom Albuquerque, Dashing Duke and His Dodgy Adventures, Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency, →ISBN, page 28. From the entry Santa Paws
  • Winter-blooming mahonias, or grape hollies, are catching on: Charity has fragrant yellow flowers.2008 January 24, Anne Raver, “What the Nurseries Like for Spring”, in New York Times. From the entry mahonia
  • "Holly, would you mind if I named my little girl 'Holly'?2006, Joyce Winters, Let Your Light Shine, →ISBN, page 209. From the entry carol
  • I mean, it's right around Christmas time, and I always think of holly with Christmas.2006, Joyce Winters, Let Your Light Shine, →ISBN, page 209. From the entry carol
  • Holly followed the Italian coast up to Monaco, and from there across the Alps to France.2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, page 67. From the entry Monaco
  • Ilicin is contained in holly berries (Ilex sp) and causes severe gastroirritation including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.1996, Peter D Bryson, Comprehensive Reviews in Toxicology: For Emergency Clinicians. From the entry ilicin
  • (Moving to the holly boughs.) Come on; let's finish Christmassing the place.1966, James Goldman, The Lion in Winter: A Comedy in Two Acts, New York, N.Y.; Hollywood, Los Angeles, Calif.: Samuel French, →OCLC, Act…. From the entry Christmas
  • Holly pianoed her fingers over her throat.2021, Emilya Naymark, Hide in Place. From the entry piano
  • Then I ́m recommended through a good friend working as a Biopath to use a flower remedy called holly.2014, Helena Öhrström, Messages of Peace from the Pleiades, page 49. From the entry biopath
  • But the deer, perhaps in solidarity with the native trees, ate my magnolias, camellias and even several obviously untoothsome holly trees.2009 April 19, Wells Tower, “Felled Wood”, in New York Times. From the entry untoothsome
  • Dasha would like to send special wreaths of holly to Shari and Jill for all the Scullyfic joy.1999 December 12, Dasha K., “NEW: After Eight by Dasha K. and Plausible Deniability (3/3)”, in alt.tv.x-files.creative (Usenet). From the entry Scullyfic
  • All Ilex hollies contain the bitter compound ilicin.1995, John Eastman, The Book of Swamp and Bog. From the entry ilicin
  • Holly faded into focus on the sleeping quarters' vid-screen.1989, Grant Naylor, Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers. From the entry uncomputerlike
  • Plant materials are trees and shrubs such as oaks, goldenrain, sour wood, Buckeye, holly, rhododendron, azalea, pine, and taxus.1988, Planning Now for Irrigation and Drainage in the 21st Century. Proceedings of a Conference : Lincoln, Nebraska, July 18-21, 1988…. From the entry goldenrain
  • A number of species, among them the yew, holly and date-bearing palm, have their male and female flowers on different trees.1950, Pageant. From the entry boy
  • The healthier of your two hollies is multi-stemmed, indicating that it was once stooled (cut down to a point just above the ground).2015 October 23, Helen Yemm, “How to rescue a dying holly tree [print version: Halt weed invasion, a holly tree's last stand, 24 October…. From the entry stool
  • Byrd is mistaken in identifying the gallbush as a buckthorn; as noted above, it is actually a North American species of holly (Ilex cariacea).2013, Kevin Joel Berland, The Dividing Line Histories of William Byrd II of Westover, page 266. From the entry gallbush
  • On all American hollies, a vertical incision, three-fourths of an inch above basal cut, helps materially in producing a better root system.1956, National Horticultural Magazine, volumes 35-36, American Horticultural Society, page 174. From the entry American holly
  • Yaupon is evergreen like the American holly and the familiar hollies of Christmas decorations, but the leaves of yaupon are small and smooth-edged rather than prickly.2002, Connie C. Barlow, The Ghosts of Evolution: Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, and Other Ecological Anachronisms. From the entry yaupon
  • We took down a fat branch of berried Megginch holly, which we stuck in a pot for a Christmas tree, hung with silver balls and glitters.1994, Cherry Drummond, The Remarkable Life of Victoria Drummond, Marine Engineer, London: The Institute of Marine Engineers, →ISBN, page 354. From the entry Christmas
  • The kissing-bunch, of berried holly hung with bright and glittering things, spun slowly over Mrs Morel's head as she trimmed her little tarts in the kitchen.1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC. From the entry berried

Meaning of holly

  1. noun Any of various shrubs or (mostly) small trees, of the genus Ilex, either evergreen or deciduous, used as decoration especially at Christmas.
  2. noun The wood from this tree.
  3. noun Any of several not closely related plant species likened to Ilex because of their prickly, evergreen foliage and/or round, bright-red berries.

Full definition of holly

Questions about holly in a sentence

How do you use holly in a sentence?
Holly is used as a noun. For example: “We'll deck the halls with boughs of holly.”
What is a short sentence with holly?
“Holly pianoed her fingers over her throat.”
What does holly mean?
Holly means any of various shrubs or (mostly) small trees, of the genus Ilex, either evergreen or deciduous, used as decoration especially at Christmas.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: holly (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use holly in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/holly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.