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

Let’s keep working on it before we throw it in there, but also the environmental factor of all these data centers and stuff — holy cow.

From Los Angeles Times • May 21, 2026

“It’s like, holy cow, buddy. There were times where he had long pauses,” Umstattd said Thursday.

From Washington Post • Oct. 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