holey
adjUK /ˈhəʊli/ · US /ˈhoʊli/
Etymology From Middle English holy, holi, holly, holli (“holey, spongy, hollow”); equivalent to hole + -y. The e was inserted in Modern English to distinguish the word from holy (“hallowed, sacred”).
1
Having, or being full of, holes.
- Fred loved holey Dutch cheese.
- Steven also acknowledged that his presentation of self—wild locs, nerd glasses, and holey hipster jeans for our first interview—encourages whites to speak to him.2014, Zandria F. Robinson, chapter 3, in This Ain't Chicago: Race, Class, and Regional Identity in the Post-Soul South, University of North Carolina Press, →ISBN, page 111:
- Derived terms
- holey dollar, holeyness