holy grail

plural holy grails

1. Alternative letter-case form of Holy Grail.

   “Making money on a constant basis is the holy grail, and Ray and Bridgewater have done that,” Ng Kok-Song, the chief investment officer of the Singapore fund, told me.

   2011 July 18, John Cassidy, “Mastering the Machine”, in The New Yorker, →ISSN

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   For City's owners, with Sheikh Mansour attending only his second game since taking control in 2008, this was the night they have planned for and the one when they finally claimed that holy grail.

   2023 June 10, Phil McNulty, “Manchester City 1 - 0 Inter Milan”, in BBC Sport

plural Holy Grails

1. Arthurian legendAn artifact in Arthurian mythology, being in later versions the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper and in which some of his blood was caught during the crucifixion.
2. InternetinformalA web page layout with fixed-width columns to the left and right, and a central area that fills the remaining space.

plural Holy Grails · alternative holy grail

1. figurativelyAnything that is highly sought-after but attained only through a difficult endeavor.

   Nanotechnology is the holy grail of medicine.

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   Pushing fifty, Alphonse was still afraid to approach women. Still searching for his holy grail, too: a 1965 yellow Mustang hardtop with 289-cubic-inch engine, four-barrel carburetor, and solid-lifter valve train. He belonged to something called the Yellow Mustang Registry. Checked eBay five or six times a day. Phoenician Yellow, his dream car had to be, not the paler Springtime Yellow, also available back in '65.

   2008, Wally Lamb, The Hour I First Believed, Ch.3, at p.65