Hail Mary

noun

plural Hail Marys

1

: a Roman Catholic prayer to the Virgin Mary that consists of salutations and a plea for her intercession

2

or less commonly Hail Mary pass : a long forward pass in football thrown into or near the end zone in a last-ditch attempt to score as time runs out

—often used figuratively

The only potential cure is a stem-cell transplant, when you take somebody else's immune system and put it into yours. But right now that's kind of a Hail Mary pass.

—Douglas Cote, quoted in Bicycling

Examples of Hail Mary in a Sentence

He threw up a Hail Mary at the end of the first half.

Recent Examples on the Web

Seems as much of a Hail Mary as entrusting their team to a coach who has never previously coached. —Dylan Hernández, Los Angeles Times, 25 June 2024

Length: 16 hours, 7 minutes Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir For those trapped in a tin can for just over 16 hours, channel your inner-Major Tom with Andy Weir’s space drama, Project Hail Mary. —Shannon Carlin, TIME, 21 June 2024

Project Hail Mary will be shot in Imax and released wide in theaters on March 20, 2026. —Anthony D'alessandro, Deadline, 17 June 2024

This is all speculative, but the hypothesis that Dudgeon is playing with is that, for some vertebrates, facultative parthenogenesis might be like the evolutionary equivalent of a Hail Mary pass. —Byrd Pinkerton, Vox, 12 June 2024

Word History

Etymology

translation of Medieval Latin Ave, Maria, from the opening words

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

Hail Mary

noun

-ˈme(ə)r-ē,

-ˈma(ə)r-ē,

-ˈmā-rē

: a Roman Catholic prayer to the Virgin Mary