Meanings
- Synonym of holy cow.
You're at some dusty museum with a headache and fallen arches when you see this thing on the wall. "Holy cannoli!" you exclaim with righteous indignation, "My kid coulda done that!"
1979 July 6, “Give Junior Intro to Art”, in Courier-Post, Camden: Gannet, Tgif, page 2 [46, sequentially]
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
Likely modeled on the earlier phrases holy macaroni, holy stromboli, and holy ravioli. Given that, a direct connection to the phonetically similar holy kamoly, which is recorded since 1957, is unlikely.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
holy cannoli. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/holy%20cannoli
“holy cannoli.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/holy%20cannoli. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “holy cannoli,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/holy%20cannoli.
Source: holy cannoli on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.