sinkhole

[ singk-hohl ]

See synonyms for sinkhole on Thesaurus.com

noun

a hole formed in soluble rock by the action of water, serving to conduct surface water to an underground passage.
Also called sink. a depressed area in which waste or drainage collects.

Origin of sinkhole

late Middle English word dating back to 1425–75; see origin at sink, hole

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use sinkhole in a sentence

Yet who could sleep at night wondering if a sink hole might swallow them whole?
Sunshine: Florida’s Fraught Relationship With the Truth | Jim DeFede | March 17, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
The lowest spot, called the Sink Hole, lay some miles distant, and was the terminus of this river of salty white.
Tales of lonely trails | Zane Grey
I have no doubt we were the first to cross the valley in this location, a visible sink hole in the desert.
Death Valley in '49 | William Lewis Manly
And that only last winter he knocked a bear in the head with his ax, at the big sink-hole spring in the middle of the field?
Burl | Morrison Heady
They surrounded us and forced us into a deep sink-hole, at the bottom of which there were some bushes.
Autobiography of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, or Black Hawk | Black Hawk

I guess likely we'll be out of soundin's if we tackle that sink hole you was undertakin' to navigate.
Keziah Coffin | Joseph C. Lincoln

British Dictionary definitions for sinkhole

sinkhole

/ (ˈsɪŋkˌhəʊl) /

noun

Also called (esp Brit): swallow hole a depression in the ground surface, esp in limestone, where a surface stream disappears underground
a place into which foul matter runs

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for sinkhole

sinkhole

[ sĭngk′hōl′ ]

A natural depression in a land surface formed by the dissolution and collapse of a cavern roof. Sinkholes are roughly funnel-shaped and on the order of tens of meters in size. They generally occur in limestone regions and are connected to subteranean passages. Also called sink See more at karst topography.

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