Holus-bolus
adv
adv ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Adverb
- 1 All together; entirely; without modification. not-comparable
"to accept a story holus-bolus."
Example
More examples"I’ll take it on my shoulders, holus bolus, blame and shame, my boy; but stay here, I cannot let you. Jump! One jump, and you’re out, and we’ll run for it like antelopes."
Etymology
Unknown. Possibly of Ancient Greek origin, from ὅλος (hólos, “whole”) and βόλος (bólos, “a throw with a casting net”), or βῶλος (bôlos, “lump”). May have been Latinized (i.e., -us ending as in masculine singular in Latin, as opposed to -os ending for masculine singular in Greek).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.