holy grail
proper noun, noun
Forms holy grails the Holy Grail
- proper noun (Arthurian legend) An 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.
- proper noun (Internet, informal) A web page layout with fixed-width columns to the left and right, and a central area that fills the remaining space.
- noun (figuratively) Anything that is highly sought-after but attained only through a difficult endeavor. “Nanotechnology is the holy grail of medicine.”
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English Holy Grayle. (web page layout): So called because it was traditionally difficult to achieve with the available markup.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “holy grail”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details