holy cow

American  

interjection

Slang.

1. (used to express bewilderment, surprise, or astonishment.)

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holy cow Idioms  

1. Also,. An exclamation of surprise, astonishment, delight, or dismay, as in Holy cow, I forgot the wine, or Holy mackerel, you won! or Holy Moses, here comes the teacher! or Holy smoke, I didn't know you were here too. The oldest of these slangy expletives uses mackerel, dating from about 1800; the one with Moses dates from about 1850 and cow from about 1920. None has any literal significance, and moly is a neologism devised to rhyme with “holy” and possibly a euphemism for “Moses.”

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Etymology

Origin of holy cow

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

But the biggest holy cow moment of all from “Batgirl” was going to be the return of Keaton as Batman.

From Washington Post • Aug. 3, 2022

“Like holy cow, a Power Five school recruiting you after one year?”

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 27, 2022

"Even with making more money than I could have hoped for when I was 20-something, house prices have far outpaced that – which when I think about that I'm like, holy cow, that is insane."

From Reuters • May 2, 2022

"It was like: holy cow - you can do this, a fully realised character!"

From BBC • Dec. 6, 2021

Sometimes the holy cow looks like he is moving.

From "The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle" by Leslie Connor