Nearby Words
noun
1.
an opening through something; gap; aperture: a hole in the roof; a hole in my sock.
2.
a hollow place in a solid body or mass; a cavity: a hole in the ground.
3.
the excavated habitation of an animal; burrow.
4.
a small, dingy, or shabby place: I couldn't live in a hole like that.
5.
EXPANDa place of solitary confinement; dungeon.
6.
an embarrassing position or predicament: to find oneself in a hole.
7.
a cove or small harbor.
8.
a fault or flaw: They found serious holes in his reasoning.
9.
a deep, still place in a stream: a swimming hole.
10.
Sports.
a.
a small cavity, into which a marble, ball, or the like is to be played.
b.
a score made by so playing.
11.
Golf.
a.
the circular opening in a green into which the ball is to be played.
b.
a part of a golf course from a tee to the hole corresponding to it, including fairway, rough, and hazards.
c.
the number of strokes taken to hit the ball from a tee into the hole corresponding to it.
12.
Informal. opening; slot: The radio program was scheduled for the p.m. hole. We need an experienced person to fill a hole in our accounting department.
13.
Metalworking. (in wire drawing) one reduction of a section.
14.
Electronics. a mobile vacancy in the electronic structure of a semiconductor that acts as a positive charge carrier and has equivalent mass.
15.
COLLAPSEAeronautics. an air pocket that causes a plane or other aircraft to drop suddenly.
verb (used with object)
16.
to make a hole or holes in.
17.
to put or drive into a hole.
18.
Golf. to hit the ball into (a hole).
19.
to bore (a tunnel, passage, etc.).
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Holes
is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
| a gadget; dingus; thingumbob. |
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
verb (used without object)
Verb phrases20.
to make a hole or holes.
21.
hole out, Golf. to strike the ball into a hole: He holed out in five, one over par.
22.
Idiomshole up,
a.
to go into a hole; retire for the winter, as a hibernating animal.
b.
to hide, as from pursuers, the police, etc.: The police think the bank robbers are holed up in Chicago.
23.
burn a hole in one's pocket, to urge one to spend money quickly: His inheritance was burning a hole in his pocket.
24.
hole in the wall, a small or confining place, especially one that is dingy, shabby, or out-of-the-way: Their first shop was a real hole in the wall.
25.
in a/the hole,
a.
in debt; in straitened circumstances: After Christmas I am always in the hole for at least a month.
b.
Baseball, Softball. pitching or batting with the count of balls or balls and strikes to one's disadvantage, especially batting with a count of two strikes and one ball or none.
c.
Stud Poker. being the card or one of the cards dealt face down in the first round: a king in the hole.
26.
make a hole in, to take a large part of: A large bill from the dentist made a hole in her savings.
27.
pick a hole/holes in, to find a fault or flaw in: As soon as I presented my argument, he began to pick holes in it. Also, poke a hole/holes in.
Origin:
before 900; Middle English; Old English hol hole, cave, orig. neuter of hol (adj.) hollow; cognate with German hohl hollow
before 900; Middle English; Old English hol hole, cave, orig. neuter of hol (adj.) hollow; cognate with German hohl hollow
Related forms
hole·less, adjective
hol·ey, adjective
Can be confused: 1. hole, whole (see synonym note at the current entry; see synonym note at whole); 2. holey, holy, wholly.
Synonyms
1, 2. pit, hollow, concavity. Hole, cavity, excavation refer to a hollow place in anything. Hole is the common word for this idea: a hole in turf. Cavity is a more formal or scientific term for a hollow within the body or in a substance, whether with or without a passage outward: a cavity in a tooth; the cranial cavity. An excavation is an extended hole made by digging out or removing material: an excavation before the construction of a building. 3. den, cave; lair, retreat. 4. hovel, shack.
1, 2. pit, hollow, concavity. Hole, cavity, excavation refer to a hollow place in anything. Hole is the common word for this idea: a hole in turf. Cavity is a more formal or scientific term for a hollow within the body or in a substance, whether with or without a passage outward: a cavity in a tooth; the cranial cavity. An excavation is an extended hole made by digging out or removing material: an excavation before the construction of a building. 3. den, cave; lair, retreat. 4. hovel, shack.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source
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Link To Holes
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
hole
O.E. hol "orifice, hollow place," from P.Gmc. *khulaz (cf. O.Fris., O.H.G. hol, M.Du. hool, O.N. holr, Ger. hohl "hollow," Goth. us-hulon "to hollow out"), from PIE base *kel- (see cell). As a contemptuous word for "small dingy lodging or abode" it is attested from 1616. Meaning
EXPAND"a fix, scrape, mess" is from 1760. Obscene slang use for "vulva" is implied from 1340. Hole in the wall "small and unpretentious place" is from 1822; to hole up first recorded 1875. To need (something) like a hole in the head, applied to something useless, first recorded 1951, probably a transl. of a Yiddish expression, cf. ich darf es vi a loch in kop.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Science Dictionary
hole  (hōl) Pronunciation Key
A gap, usually the valence band of an insulator or semiconductor, that would normally be filled with one electron. If an electron accelerated by a voltage moves into a gap, it leaves a gap behind it, and in this way the hole itself appears to move through the substance. Even though holes are in fact the absence of a negatively charged particle (an electron), they can be treated theoretically as positively charged particles, whose motion gives rise to electric current. |
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
hole definition
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Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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