HOLEY Synonyms: 33 Similar and Opposite Words

holey

adjective

Definition of holey

as in shredded

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of holey Don’t donate moldy, ripped, or holey shoes or pairs with no structure. — Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 16 Aug. 2026 That’s thanks to a quirk of South Florida’s geology, where the entire region is perched on holey rock that does little to stop the rise of groundwater, which Sukop’s research has shown is rising on pace with sea level. — Susan Merriam, Miami Herald, 12 Nov. 2025 But the story is lumpy too, its mechanical interweaving of Shakespeare and Disney somehow both predictable and holey. — New York Times, 24 Oct. 2021 In a 2018 Frontiers in Psychiatry case study, a girl with trypophobia reported being triggered by seeds on bread, polka dot or animal prints, holey cheese, and honeycomb. — Natasha Lavender, SELF, 26 July 2019 This part happens fast, but the gist is that the holey boat founders next to a larger ship that’s sinking and spilling oil into the water. — Eliza Thompson, Cosmopolitan, 17 July 2017 Remember when someone turned their fingernails into holey slices of Swiss cheese and the internet was devastated by the grossness? — Kelsey Stiegman, Seventeen, 14 July 2017

Recent Examples of Synonyms for holey

Adjective

People in Crystal Lake are constantly being dispatched in ways that offer the most shredded flesh, spurting blood and oozing viscera possible.

— Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 13 Oct. 2026
Cooked chicken and shredded cheese were held above proper cold holding temperature.

— Sacbee.com, Sacbee.com, 9 Oct. 2026

Definition of shredded

Adjective

Protests by high school students angry about dilapidated, understaffed schools have roiled France since mid-September.

— JOHN LEICESTER, Arkansas Online, 15 Oct. 2026
High schoolers are expressing broad grievances over schools that are under-resourced, with dilapidated facilities and insufficient staff, notably in lower-income neighborhoods.

— ABC News, ABC News, 13 Oct. 2026

Definition of dilapidated

Adjective

For some reason that has zero bearing on the plot, Digger loves his mangy cat and is determined to keep the ailing creature, half-blind and incontinent, alive at any cost.

— David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 29 Sep. 2026
Too mangy, too rangy, prowling in their bony elegance, leaping weightless from dangerously precarious mounds of sharp edges, peering yellow- eyed from shadows.

— Danielle Parker, CBS News, 21 May 2026

Definition of mangy

Adjective

Beware of Judy The film opens with Digger waking up to find his decrepit cat, Maggie, at death’s door.

— Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 7 Oct. 2026
Bumping along a rocky road to the island’s highest point, the officer – one hand on the wheel of his decrepit army truck – points to Eritrea and Djibouti across the water, on the African side of the strait.

— Nic Robertson, CNN Money, 10 Sep. 2026

Definition of decrepit

Browse Nearby Words

hole up

holey

holiday

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“Holey.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/holey. Accessed 21 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of holey

adjective

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