hole
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /həʊl/
ipa: [hɔʊɫ]
note: doll–dole merger
ipa: /hɒl/
ipa: /hɐʉl/
ipa: [hɔʊɫ]
ipa: /hoʊl/
ipa: [hoɫ]
ipa: [hoːɫ]
ipa: /hol/
ipa: [hoɫ]
rhymes: -əʊl
homophone: whole
Forms: form: holes
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English hole, hol, from Old English hol (“orifice, hollow place, cavity”), from Proto-West Germanic *hol, from Proto-Germanic *hulą (“hollow space, cavity”), noun derivative of Proto-Germanic *hulaz (“hollow”), which is of uncertain ultimate origin. Related to hollow.
Senses: examples: text: I made a blind hole in the wall for a peg.  I dug a hole and planted a tree in it.
text: To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in't, are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully disaster the cheeks.
ref: c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii]:
text: Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill.
ref: 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
glosses: A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; a dent; a depression; a fissure.
examples: text: There’s a hole in my shoe.  Her stocking has a hole in it.
text: The priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Kings 12:9:
text: […]her palfrey’s footfall shot
Light horrors thro’ her pulses: the blind walls
Were full of chinks and holes; and overhead
Fantastic gables, crowding, stared:[…]
ref: 1840, Alfred Tennyson, Godiva:
glosses: An opening that goes all the way through a solid body, a fabric, etc.; a perforation; a rent.
topics: golf
heading
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: In games.
A subsurface standard-size hole, also called cup, hitting the ball into which is the object of play. Each hole, of which there are usually eighteen as the standard on a full course, is located on a prepared surface, called the green, of a particular type grass.
examples: text: I played 18 holes yesterday.  The second hole today cost me three strokes over par.
topics: golf
heading
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: In games.
The part of a game in which a player attempts to hit the ball into one of the holes.
examples: text: The shortstop ranged deep into the hole to make the stop.
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
heading
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: In games.
The rear portion of the defensive team between the shortstop and the third baseman.
topics: board-games
chess
games
heading
glosses: In games.
A square on the board, with some positional significance, that a player does not, and cannot in the future, control with a friendly pawn.
topics: heading
glosses: In games.
A card (also called a hole card) dealt face down thus unknown to all but its holder; the status in which such a card is.
qualifier: stud poker
topics: heading
glosses: In games.
In the game of fives, part of the floor of the court between the step and the pepperbox.
topics: archaeology
history
human-sciences
sciences
glosses: An excavation pit or trench.
examples: text: I have found a hole in your argument.
text: But between the drinks and subtle things / The holes in my apologies, you know / I’m trying hard to take it back
ref: 2011, Fun, “We Are Young”:
glosses: A weakness; a flaw or ambiguity.
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: In semiconductors, a lack of an electron in an occupied band behaving like a positively charged particle.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A security vulnerability in software which can be taken advantage of by an exploit.
examples: text: Just shut your hole!
glosses: A person's mouth.
glosses: Any bodily orifice, in particular the anus.
glosses: A vagina.
examples: text: In late December a Washington State prisoner was involved in a scuffle with a guard who was trying to take him into the hole.
ref: 1988 April 2, Ed Mead, “AIDS hysteria sweeps prison guards' union”, in Gay Community News, page 9:
text: Disciplinary actions can range from a mere write up to serious time in the hole.
ref: 2011, Ahmariah Jackson, IAtomic Seven, Locked Up but Not Locked Down:
synonyms: box
glosses: Solitary confinement, a high-security prison cell often used as punishment.
examples: text: His apartment is a hole!
text: I have often heard people say, "One can't live upon a view," and I have heard some of the most beautiful places called "awful holes," simply because of the monotonous lives led in them.
ref: 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 109:
glosses: An undesirable place to live or visit.
examples: text: If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
glosses: Difficulty, in particular, debt.
topics: graph-theory
mathematics
sciences
glosses: A chordless cycle in a graph.
examples: text: We’re supposed to take the hole at Cronk and wait for the Limited to pass.
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: A passing loop; a siding provided for trains traveling in opposite directions on a single-track line to pass each other.
examples: text: Jackson Hole
glosses: A mountain valley.
Synonyms: sense: solitary confinement
word: administrative segregation
sense: solitary confinement
word: ad-seg
sense: solitary confinement
word: block
sense: solitary confinement
word: box
sense: solitary confinement
word: cooler
sense: solitary confinement
word: hotbox
sense: solitary confinement
word: lockdown
sense: solitary confinement
word: pound
sense: solitary confinement
word: SCU
sense: solitary confinement
word: security housing unit
sense: solitary confinement
word: SHU
sense: solitary confinement
word: special handling unit
word: hole
Hypernyms: word: interspace
Hyponyms: word: breach
word: cavity
word: opening
word: gap
word: lacuna
word: mouth
word: aperture
word: outlet
word: crack
word: cleft
word: fissure
word: bore
word: tunnel
word: burrow
word: tear
word: break
word: rip
word: slit
word: incision
word: clearing
word: pinhole
word: keyhole
word: loophole
word: peephole
word: mousehole
word: pigeonhole
word: foramen
word: orifice
word: chasm
word: gorge
word: abyss
word: mine
word: crevice
word: rift
word: crevasse
word: cave
word: cavern
word: basin
word: crater
word: valley
word: inlet
word: concavity
word: depression
word: dimple
word: excavation
word: furrow
word: grave
word: groove
word: hollow
word: notch
word: pit
word: recess
word: score
word: scratch
word: trench
word: ditch
word: moat
word: gutter
word: trough
word: channel
word: well
word: room
word: window
word: porthole
word: embrasure
word: door
word: trapdoor
word: hatch
word: gate
word: doorway
word: gateway
Derived terms: ace in the hole
a-hole
airhole
air hole
analog hole
analogue hole
anthole
antihole
armhole
arm hole
arrow-hole
arsehole
ash-hole
ass hole
asshole
Aubrey hole
back hole
batty hole
beam hole
beanhole
bean hole
Beck Hole
bench-hole
blackhole
black-hole
black hole
blasthole
blind hole
block hole
blockhole
blow a hole through
blowhole
blue hole
bolthole
bolt-hole
bonus hole
bootyhole
borehole
boy hole
BTZ black hole
bullet hole
bullethole
bum hole
bumhole
bung-hole
burn a hole in one's pocket
burn a hole in someone's pocket
burr hole
butthole
button-hole
buttonhole
button hole
cakehole
cat-hole
cathole
cat hole
c-hole
chuckhole
clearance hole
cloud hole
coal hole
cockhole
cookie hole
corehole
core hole
cornhole
coronal hole
couldn't piss a hole in the snow
countersunk hole
crabhole
cradle hole
craphole
creephole
cryoconite hole
cubbyhole
cubby hole
cuddy-hole
cum-hole
cumhole
cum hole
cyberhole
Dane-hole
denehole
d-hole
dickhole
dig a hole for oneself
dig oneself in a hole
dig oneself into a hole
dig out of a hole
dihole
docker hole
doghole
donut hole
doo-doo hole
dookie hole
doughnut hole
Dove Holes
downhole
down-hole
dreamhole
drinking hole
driphole
drophole
dry hole
dumb hole
dunghole
dust hole
Dust-Hole
dusthole
earhole
earthhole
egg in a hole
egg-in-a-hole
electron hole
exit hole
eyehole
facehole
fallstreak hole
farthole
feedhole
ff-hole
f-hole
fighting hole
fingerhole
finger hole
firehole
fire in the hole
five-hole
floss hole
foothole
fox hole
foxhole
fox-hole
front hole
fuckhole
funkhole
funk hole
get one's hole
glory-hole
glory hole
gnamma hole
gobble hole
go five-hole
graph hole
gully-hole
gunk-hole
handhole
hand-hole
hardie hole
hardy hole
hawsehole
hell hole
hell-hole
Hell hole
hellhole
Hetton-le-Hole
hide-hole
hidey-hole
high-hole
hole-and-corner
hole-board test
hole card
hole carding
holeful
hole in one
hole in the head
hole-in-the-wall
holeless
holelike
holeproof
holepunch
hole punch
hole punch cloud
hole saw
holeshot
hole state
holey
holk
holyhedron
honey hole
hulk
Hutton-le-Hole
ice hole
in the hole
jackhole
Jackson Hole
jaw-hole
Johnson hole
Judas-hole
Kerr black hole
Kerr-Newman black hole
kettle hole
keyhole
K-hole
kilnhole
kneehole
knothole
know one's ass from a hole in the ground
know one's head from a hole in the ground
know someone from a hole in the ground
know someone from a hole in the wall
know the difference between one's ass and a hole in the ground
knuckerhole
knucker hole
lamphole
leghole
like a hole in one's head
like a hole in the head
like one needs a hole in the head
linnet hole
loophole
loop hole
love hole
lubber's hole
lughole
maintenance hole
man-hole
man hole
manhole
mayhole
melon hole
memory hole
memory-hole
microhole
minihole
miracle hole
Mohole
mousehole
mouse-hole
mudhole
multihole
murder hole
murder-hole
nanohole
neckhole
nesthole
news hole
nineteenth hole
nosehole
oarhole
oar-hole
optical black hole
outhole
overflow hole
ozone hole
peehole
peekhole
peephole
pesthole
photohole
pick a hole in someone's coat
piehole
pie hole
pie-hole
pigeon-hole
pigeon hole
pigeonhole
pilot hole
pilot-hole
pin-hole
pinhole
pisshole
placket hole
plot hole
plughole
pocket-hole
pocket-hole jig
poke holes in
poophole
pophole
porthole
posthole
pothole
pot-hole
pot hole
potholing
priest hole
priest's hole
primordial black hole
pritchel hole
pseudohole
pukehole
punch hole
punch-hole
pussyhole
pussyo
putlog hole
put the wood in the hole
quasihole
quiggly hole
rabbit hole
rathole
rat hole
regular black hole
Reissner-Nordström black hole
ringhole
rockhole
rock hole
roothole
rudderhole
rum hole
Schwarzschild black hole
scumhole
scupper hole
security hole
shake hole
shakehole
s-hole
shothole
sighthole
sink-hole
sink hole
sinkhole
sleazehole
slimehole
sludge hole
slut hole
smokehole
snowhole
sound hole
spider hole
spithole
spouthole
spyhole
square peg in a round hole
stakehole
starting hole
stinkhole
stokehole
stumphole
suckhole
supermassive black hole
swallow hole
sweat hole
swimming hole
swirlhole
tailhole
taphole
teaze-hole
three-hole punch
through-hole technology
thru-hole technology
thumbhole
toad in a hole
toad-in-the-hole
toad in the hole
tone hole
top hole
top-hole
touchhole
touch hole
touch-hole
traphole
two-hole punch
underhole
uphole
venthole
visual hole
waffle hole
water hole
waterhole
water-hole
watering hole
watering hole attack
weephole
weep hole
wellhole
white hole
winding hole
Wokey Hole
wonky hole
woodhole
Wookey Hole
wool-hole
word hole
work the hole
wormhole
yaoi hole