Idiom
holy buckets
Meaning
An exclamation of surprise or astonishment.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Holy buckets, that is a huge spider!”
“Holy buckets, you look exactly like your father in that old photo.”
“Holy buckets, there are thousands of people waiting in line for the concert.”
“Holy buckets, I cannot believe you actually finished that difficult project in just one hour.”
“Holy buckets, the total for these groceries is twice as much as I expected to pay today.”
“Holy buckets, I just realized I left the oven on when we left the house this morning.”
“Holy buckets, the wind blew the entire garden fence down while we were sleeping during the storm last night.”
“Holy buckets, the sheer scale of the mountain range took his breath away as he reached the summit.”
Examples
simple
“Holy buckets, that is a huge spider!”
“Holy buckets, you look exactly like your father in that old photo.”
“Holy buckets, there are thousands of people waiting in line for the concert.”
contextual
“Holy buckets, I cannot believe you actually finished that difficult project in just one hour.”
“Holy buckets, the total for these groceries is twice as much as I expected to pay today.”
“Holy buckets, I just realized I left the oven on when we left the house this morning.”
“Holy buckets, the wind blew the entire garden fence down while we were sleeping during the storm last night.”
complex
“Holy buckets, the sheer scale of the mountain range took his breath away as he reached the summit.”
Origin
The origins of the phrase are uncertain, though it is commonly proposed to be a minced oath. One theory suggests the term arose as a rhyming substitution for the vulgarity *fuck it*, following the pattern of established euphemisms such as *holy cow*. An alternative, rather more literal explanation posits the expression as a punning allusion to a bucket with a hole, which is, by definition, holey.
Key words
Related idioms
- Updated