n. a devilish person; a badly behaving child. : Why is the boss such a holy terror today?
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition. Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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An exasperating individual, as in He was only five, but he was a holy terror, running wild through the house and throwing whatever he could lay his hands on. The adjective holy here is an intensifier. [Late 1800s]