Meanings
- The fictional detective who is the protagonist of the series.
1 more example
“Oh, hullo, Mrs Cream.” The woman she was addressing was tall and thin with a hawk-like face that reminded me of Sherlock Holmes. She had an ink spot on her nose, the result of working on her novel of suspense. [...] This was the first time I had seen Ma Cream today, she having gone off around noon to lunch with some friends in Birmingham, and I would willingly not have seen her now, for something in her manner seemed to suggest that she spelled trouble. She was looking more like Sherlock Holmes than ever. Slap a dressing-gown on her and give her a violin, and she could have walked straight into Baker Street and no questions asked. [...] She sniffed. And if I were to say that I liked the way she sniffed, I would be wilfully deceiving my public. It was the sort of sniff Sherlock Holmes would have sniffed when about to clap the darbies on the chap who had swiped the Maharajah's ruby. [...] “Yes, sir, if that was the language of love, I'll eat my hat,” said the blood relation, alluding, I took it, to the beastly straw contraption in which she does her gardening, concerning which I can only say that it is almost as foul as Uncle Tom's Sherlock Holmes deerstalker, which has frightened more crows than any other lid in Worcestershire.
1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “V & XX, XII”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC - broadlyfigurativelyAny person who has or is considered to have great powers of observation and deduction.
And proof was soon evident that he needed to be a Sherlock Holmes.
1937, Ion Idriess, Over The Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 1911 more example
What powers of deduction! . . . And what assurance! . . . A real Sherlock Holmes! I really didn’t think detectives like that existed, except in books!
1978, Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper, Michael Turner, transl., Tintin in America (The Adventures of Tintin), Egmont, published 2012, →ISBN, page 45
Synonyms & antonyms
Translations
Arabic شرلوك هولمز
- شرلوك هولمز (šerluk hulms)fictional detective
Chinese Mandarin 歇洛克·福爾摩斯 /歇洛克·福尔摩斯, 夏洛克·福爾摩斯 /夏洛克·福尔摩斯
- 歇洛克·福爾摩斯 /歇洛克·福尔摩斯 (Xiēluòkè Fú'ěrmósī)fictional detective
- 夏洛克·福爾摩斯 /夏洛克·福尔摩斯 (Xiàluòkè Fú'ěrmósī)fictional detective
Danish Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes
- Sherlock Holmesfictional detective
- Sherlock Holmesperson with great powers of deduction
Esperanto Ŝerloko Holmso
- Ŝerloko Holmsofictional detective
Greek Σέρλοκ Χολμς
- Σέρλοκ Χολμς (Sérlok Cholms)fictional detective
Hebrew שרלוק הולמס
- שרלוק הולמסfictional detective
Indonesian Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes
- Sherlock Holmesfictional detective
- Sherlock Holmesperson with great powers of deduction
Italian Sherlock Holmes
- Sherlock Holmesperson with great powers of deduction
Japanese シャーロック・ホームズ
- シャーロック・ホームズ (Shārokku Hōmuzu)fictional detective
Korean 셜록 홈즈
- 셜록 홈즈 (Syeollok Homjeu)fictional detective
Polish Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes
- Sherlock Holmesfictional detective
- Sherlock Holmesperson with great powers of deduction
- Sherlockperson with great powers of deduction
Portuguese Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes
- Sherlock Holmesfictional detective
- Sherlock Holmesperson with great powers of deduction
Russian Ше́рлок Холмс, Ше́рлок Холмс
- Ше́рлок Холмс (Šérlok Xolms)fictional detective
- Ше́рлок Холмс (Šérlok Xolms)person with great powers of deduction
Cite this entry
Sherlock Holmes. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sherlock%20Holmes
“Sherlock Holmes.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sherlock%20Holmes. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Sherlock Holmes,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sherlock%20Holmes.
Source: Sherlock Holmes on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.