holy show
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Compared by the English Dialect Dictionary to the phrase holy bizen, holy byzont; see bizen.[1]
Noun
[edit]holy show (plural holy shows)
- A shameful spectacle; a scene.
- 1827, [Gerald Griffin], chapter 1, in The Half Sir (Tales of the Munster Festivals; 1)[1], London: Saunders and Otley, →OCLC, page 229:
- […] here am I now, in the flower o' my days, […] in this old box pitched up on top of a hill, and shaking to every blast o' wind like a straw upon the waters […] disgracen himself an' all belongen to him. There'll be a holy show med of us with the Wran-boys.
Usage notes
[edit]- Usually to make a holy show of something (or of oneself).
References
[edit]- ^ Joseph Wright, editor (1902), “HOLY, adj.”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume III (H–L), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 214, column 1: “(2) — bizen or by·zont, a show, spectacle, or conspicuous or ridiculous object […] (18) — show, see (2)”