HOLLY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Holly mean? 

• HOLLY (noun)
  The noun HOLLY has 2 senses:

1. any tree or shrub of the genus Ilex having red berries and shiny evergreen leaves with prickly edges

2. United States rock star (1936-1959)

  Familiarity information: HOLLY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HOLLY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any tree or shrub of the genus Ilex having red berries and shiny evergreen leaves with prickly edges

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("holly" is a kind of...):

angiospermous tree; flowering tree (any tree having seeds and ovules contained in the ovary)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "holly"):

bearberry; Ilex decidua; possum haw; winterberry (deciduous shrub of southeastern and central United States)

evergreen winterberry; gall-berry; gallberry; Ilex glabra; inkberry (evergreen holly of eastern North America with oblong leathery leaves and small black berries)

Ilex paraguariensis; mate; Paraguay tea (South American holly; leaves used in making a drink like tea)

American holly; Christmas holly (an evergreen tree)

low gallberry holly; tall gallberry holly; yaupon holly (an evergreen shrub)

deciduous holly (a holly tree)

juneberry holly (a holly shrub)

largeleaf holly (a holly tree)

Geogia holly; common winterberry holly; smooth winterberry holly (a holly shrub)

Holonyms ("holly" is a member of...):

genus Ilex; Ilex (a large genus of dicotyledonous trees and shrubs of the family Aquifoliaceae that have small flowers and berries (including hollies))

Sense 2

Meaning:

United States rock star (1936-1959)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Buddy Holly; Charles Hardin Holley; Holly

Instance hypernyms:

ballad maker; songster; songwriter (a composer of words or music for popular songs)

rock star (a famous singer of rock music)

 Context examples 

With that, he made a polite bow; and, with another to Miss Dartle, went away through the arch in the wall of holly by which he had come.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

While she remained, a bush of low rambling holly protected her, and they were moving on.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

On each side stood a sable bush-holly or yew.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

As they advanced, the path still tended upwards, running from heath into copses of holly and yew, and so back into heath again.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

‘Well, that’s true enough,’ said he. ‘You know, Victor,’ turning to his son, ‘when we broke up that poaching gang, they swore to knife us, and Sir Edward Holly has actually been attacked.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Out in the garden stood a stately snow maiden, crowned with holly, bearing a basket of fruit and flowers in one hand, a great roll of music in the other, a perfect rainbow of an Afghan round her chilly shoulders, and a Christmas carol issuing from her lips on a pink paper streamer.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

High, leafless trees girt it in on three sides, with a thick undergrowth of holly between their trunks.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She rose with an ill-favoured smile, and taking a few steps towards a wall of holly that was near at hand, dividing the lawn from a kitchen-garden, said, in a louder voice, Come here!—as if she were calling to some unclean beast.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I, too, in the grey, small, antique structure, with its low roof, its latticed casements, its mouldering walls, its avenue of aged firs—all grown aslant under the stress of mountain winds; its garden, dark with yew and holly—and where no flowers but of the hardiest species would bloom—found a charm both potent and permanent.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was a relief to him, therefore, when their narrow track opened out upon a larger road, and they saw some little way down it a square white house with a great bunch of holly hung out at the end of a stick from one of the upper windows.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)