houlihan

H4O1U1L1I1H4A1N1

noun

A kind of lasso throw.

OriginIrish Ó hUallacháin →
UncommonScrabble 14
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

houlihan1

nounhoulihan (plural houlihans)

plural houlihans · alternative hooley-ann · alternative hoolihan

  1. A kind of lasso throw.

    But if he could not throw the houlihan, he still might get down in the dirt of the corral to help with dehorning, castrating, and branding.

    2009, Clyde A. Milner II, Carol A. O'Connor, As Big as the West: The Pioneer Life of Granville Stuart, page 214

Houlihan2

proper nounHoulihan (plural Houlihans)

plural Houlihans · alternative Holahan · alternative Holihan · alternative Holohan · alternative Hoolahan · alternative Hoolihan · alternative Houlahan · alternative Hulahan · alternative Hulihan · alternative Hoolan

  1. A surname from Irish.

Origin

  1. IrishÓ hUallacháin“descendant of Uallachán”
  2. EnglishHoulihan

Anglicized form of Irish Ó hUallacháin (“descendant of Uallachán”), a personal name derived from a diminutive of uallach (“proud, arrogant”).

More words from Irish

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

houlihan. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/houlihan

MLA

“houlihan.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/houlihan. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “houlihan,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/houlihan.

Source: houlihan on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.