| 释义 |
▪ I. hole, n.|həʊl|
Forms: 1–5 hol, 4– hole; also 5–6 hoole, Sc. hoill, hoil(e, 6 hooll(e, whole, 6–7 hoale, 8–9 Yorksh. dial. hoil.
[OE. hol neut., inflected hol-e, hol-es, hol-u, a hollow place = OFris. OS., OHG. (MHG., MLG., MDu., Du.) hol (Ger. hohl), orig. neuter of hol, holl a., hollow. Also app. repr. OE. holh, hollow n., in its inflected forms hol-e, hol-es, (?) hol-u, which fall together with the corresp. forms of hol. (The OE. hole, holu, holum, usually referred to hol, may equally well belong to holh: see Sievers Ags. Gram. (ed. 3) §242, Anm. 3, 4; and cf. inflexion of healh, sealh, wealh.)
The uninflected hol retained short o in ME., and was normally written holl (cf. OE. sceal, smæl, ME. shall, small); but in the inflected forms ho-le, ho-les, etc. (whether from hol or holh), the o in open syllable was normally lengthened, giving ME. and mod. hōle, hōles. (In mod.Eng., short o is further lengthened before ll, giving mod. dial. hōll (not distinguishable from hōle); in Sc. -ōll becomes -ow, -owe, giving how, howe, ‘hollow’.) OE. holh, like other words in -lh, -rh, was susceptible of twofold inflexion, (1) with loss of h, hole, etc., (2) with consonant-ablaut, holȝe, holwe, etc. The former, as said above, fell together with the inflected forms of hol; the latter gave rise to ME. holwe, holewe, hollow n. and a. The development may be thus shown:
OE. holuninfl.holME. hŏllmod. (dial.) hōll, Sc. how(e.
OE. holinfl.hol-eME. holemod. hole.
OE. holhinfl.hol-eME. holemod. hole.
OE. holhinfl.holw-eME. holwemod. hollow
The senses, to a great extent, coincide or overlap; holl a. and n., Sc. how(e, are, in use, the northern equivalents of hollow; hole n. has all the senses of holl (howe) n. and hollow n., with a fuller development of its own. In the 15–16th c. Sc. spelling hoill, oi is merely the graphic form of ō; but in mod. Yorkshire hoil, the oi is diphthongal.]
I. A hollow place, cavity, excavation, etc.
1. a. A hollow place or cavity in a solid body; a pit, cave, den, hiding-place in the earth; a deep place in a stream, pond, etc.
946Charter Edmund in Kemble Cod. Dipl. III. 423 To þam ealdan hole; of ðam hole. a1000Boeth. Metr. ii. 21 Me þas woruld sælða..on þis dimme hol dysine forlæddon. c1000Ags. Ps. (Th.) ix. 29 [x. 9] And settað his diᵹollice, swa swa leo deð of his hole. a1225St. Marher. 10 He..weneð for to beoren me in to his balefule hole. c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 85/75 In þe north-side of þe toun in one olde roche he was. He lai and darede out of is hole. 13..E.E. Allit. P. C. 306 Out of þe hole þou me herde. a1400–50Alexander 4050 Haue ȝe na houses ne na hames, ne holis in to bery? c1440Promp. Parv. 243/1 Hoole, or pyt yn an hylle, or other lyke (S. hole, or eryth), caverna. 14..Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 722/35 Hec crupta, a hol in the erthe. 1548Hall Chron., Edw. IV 191 Whiche..hid themselfes and lurked in dennes and wholes. Ibid., Hen. VIII, 134 b, With their swordes digged holes in the banke to clyme up. 1571Satir. Poems Reform. xxvi. 23 Ȝour fais wist not in what hoil yame to hyde. a1605Montgomerie Sonn. xxii. 11 Ȝe sall not haif ane hoill ȝour heids to hyde. 1653Walton Angler ii. 52 Go to the same hole, where..you will finde floting neer the top of the water, at least a dozen or twenty Chubs. 1657R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 41 Great Rocks..so soft, as with your finger you may bore a hole into it. 1756T. Hale Compl. Body Husb. iii. xix. 122 Digging a Hole in the Ground. 1826Scott Woodst. xxxiv, The head..dinted a hole in the soil of six inches in depth. 1883J. G. Wood in Sunday Mag. Nov. 676/2 All rivers have some portions deeper than others, ‘holes’ as we call them.
b. An excavation made in the ground for habitation by an animal, as the fox or badger; a burrow.
c950Lindisf. Gosp. Luke ix. 58 Foxas holas habbað [Rushw. G. Foxes holo habbas. Ags. G. Foxas habbað holu. Hatt. G. Foxas hæbbeð hole]. c1200Vices & Virtues 101 Hie [naddre] haueð hire hol. c1220Bestiary 248 Of corn and of gres [ðe mire] haleð to hire hole. 1375Barbour Bruce xix. 669 The fox..Lukit about sum hoill to se. 1481Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 12 Reynart..wente..in to his hole, for maleperduys was ful of hooles, hier one hool and there an other. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 810 The Viper dead within her Hole is found. 1729Swift Let. to Bolingbroke 21 Mar., To have done with the world..if I could get into a better..and not die here in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole. 1792Osbaldiston Brit. Sportsm. 40 If you intend to dig the badger out of his hole. 1885Leisure Hour June 401 A snake-charmer's music inducing a large cobra to leave its hole.
c. A deep hollow or cavity in the surface of the body; e.g. an eye-socket. Cf. arm-hole.
c1300Havelok 1813 Þat þe rith eye Vt of þe hole made he fleye. 14..Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 598/4 Nucha, the hole of the polle. 1483Cath. Angl. 187/2 An Hole in y⊇ nek, frontinella. c1532G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 903 The holes under the armes, les esselles. 1638Sanderson Serm. (1681) II. 101 We might have waited till our eyes had sunk in their holes. 1758J. S. Le Dran's Observ. Surg. (1771) 50 That Part vulgarly called the Hole of the Neck.
2. transf.
†a. A secret place, a hiding-place; a secret room in which an unlawful occupation is pursued; a place where unlicensed printing was carried on.
1483Cath. Angl. 187/2 An Hole, latebra, latibulum. 1660Pepys Diary 23 May, At a Catholique house, he was fain to lie in the priest's hole a good while. 1683Moxon Mech. Exerc. 380 Many Printers for Lucre of Gain have gone into Holes, and then their chief care is to get a Hole Private, and Workmen Trusty and Cunning to conceal the Hole, and themselves. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 122/1 Holes, in Printing dialect is a place where privat Printing is used, viz. the printing of unlicensed Books or other Men's Coppies.
b. A dungeon or prison-cell; spec. the name of one of the worst apartments in the Counter prison in Wood street, London. Cf. black-hole. Now usu. the cell used for solitary confinement, and hence solitary confinement itself.
1535Lyndesay Satyre 1017 Wee haue gart bind him with ane poill, And send him to the theifis hoill. 1607Heywood Woman killed with Kindn. Wks. 1874 II. 125 He is deni'de the freedome of the prison, And in the hole is laide with men condemn'd. 1607Wentw. Smith Puritan iii. F, But if ere wee clutch him againe, the Counter shall charm him. Rav. The hole shall rotte him. 1666Pepys Diary 2 July, He was clapped up in the Hole. 1678,1722Condemned hole [see condemned 3]. 1822Nares s.v., We still hear of the condemned hole in Newgate. 1912D. Lowrie My Life in Prison iv. 39 ‘It's a case of spending the night at the springs if you're not at your cell for the count.’ In answer to my hurried inquiry about ‘the springs’ he informed me that he referred to ‘the hole’. 1927Amer. Speech II. 282/1 Hole, dungeon or place for solitary confinement. 1935N. Ersine Underworld & Prison Slang 45 Hole,..the solitary confinement cells of a prison. ‘Smitty just got tossed in the hole.’ 1955W. Gaddis Recognitions ii. v. 488 He had..spent a fair amount of time in solitary confinement (‘the hole’, as it was called). 1970G. Jackson Let. 25 Mar. in Soledad Brother (1971) 197 They're out of the hole (isolation) already.
c. A small dingy lodging or abode; a small or mean habitation; an unpleasant place of abode; a term of contempt or depreciation for any place.
1616W. Haig Let. 2 Aug. in J. Russell Haigs vii. (1881) 156 Being innocent, it is a pity to smother me in this loath⁓some hole. a1700Dryden (J.), How much more happy thou, that art content To live within this little hole, than I Who after empire, that vain quarry, fly. 1726Leoni Designs Pref. 1/2 You expect a stately Palace, where you find nothing but an ill-contrived Hole. 1836T. Hook G. Gurney III. 127 This house..to me the horridest hole I ever was in. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. iii. xxv, Grandcourt..pronounced that resort of fashion a beastly hole, worse than Baden. 1889J. S. Winter Mrs. Bob (1891) 3 Two hundred a year for a little hole I could not get my piano into.
d. A shilling. slang.
1934P. Allingham Cheapjack iv. 38 A penny is a ‘clod’, and ‘sprasy’ means sixpence. A shilling is also a ‘hole’, and a two-shilling piece is a ‘two-ender’. 1939[see bar n.1 3 c].
3. fig. A position from which it is difficult to escape; a fix, scrape, mess.
1760C. Johnston Chrysal (1764) I. ii. vii. 132, I should take great pleasure in serving you, and getting you out of this hole. 1762Smollett Sir L. Greaves xvi, I should be in a deadly hole myself, if all my customers should take it in their heads to drink nothing but water-gruel. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Hole, a scrape..A man gets himself into a hole by taking a wrong step. 1882Ouida Under 2 Flags i. (1890) 6 I'm in a hole—no end of a hole; and I thought you'd help me. 1925Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves! iv. 81 ‘Mr Bickersteth is in a hole, Jeeves,..and wants you to rally round.’ ‘Very good, sir.’ 1937A. Christie Murder in Mews 218 Lawyers, even the most respectable, have been known to embezzle their client's money when they themselves are in a hole. 1970G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard v. 154 Too bad if he has, I'll be in a great big hole.
4. technical.
a. A hemispherical cavity into which a ball or marbles are to be got in various games; esp. one of those into which the ball is driven at golf; hence, a point scored by the player who drives his ball from one hole to another with the fewest strokes. spec. one of the (usu. nine or eighteen) strips of land on a golf-course, consisting of a tee, fairway (and bordering rough), green and hole (sense 4 a), over which a golfer plays his ball; the play which takes place between teeing off and holing the ball; hole in one, the driving of the ball from the tee into the hole with only one stroke. Also fig.
1583Hollyband Campo di Fior 129 We will playe at pit hole for nuttes. We will make a pitte hole, and there cast our nuttes. 1808–18Jamieson, Golf, goff, gouf, a game in Scotland, in which hooked clubs are used for striking balls, stuffed very hard with feathers, from one hole to another. 1874J. Blackwood Let. 4 Aug. in Geo. Eliot Lett. (1956) VI. 74 When we were a few holes out he exclaimed fervently, ‘This is a great, glorious, and noble game.’ 1887J. L. Stewart Golfiana Miscellanea 100 The hole is won by the side holing at fewest strokes. 1890Hutchinson Golf (Badm. Libr.) 43 You are playing a match of, say, eighteen holes, and have reached the putting-green of the last hole. 1891H. G. Hutchinson Famous Golf Links 90 Point Garry is a long, hazardous hole. Ibid. 156 The third hole (135 yards) is an exact counterpart of the second. 1893Barrie & Conan Doyle Jane Annie ii. 41, I gives in! You have my word of honour! It's your hole. 1896Park Golf 5 The size of the holes, as fixed by the laws of the game, is four and a quarter inches in diameter. 1908J. Braid Advanced Golf 252 Holes of about 360 to 380 yards. 1935Graves & Longhurst Candid Caddies 28 There are all kinds of variants on the ‘hole in one’ story where the player has achieved this feat with a club other than the one selected by the caddie. 1971Daily Tel. 12 June 1/5 (heading) Golfer gets two holes in one. Ibid., Successive holes in one have been done only twice before in Britain. 1972I. Stuart Golf in Hertfordshire 67 There are six par-three holes, all of them fair and only one over 200 yards. 1973Country Life 17 May 1369/3 The final rounds of a 72-hole event.
b. Billiards. = pocket.
1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 262/2 The Holes in the four corners and sides of the..Billiard Table. 1725Cotton's Compl. Gamester (ed. 5) 151 At the four Corners of the [Billiard] Table there are Holes, and at each side exactly in the Middle, one, which are called Hazards. 1778C. Jones Hoyle's Games Impr. 191 He that stops either Ball, when running, loses one; and if near the Hole, loses two.
†c. The narrow closed part or bag at the lower end of a trawl-net or other fishing net: = cod n.1 5.
1630in Descr. Thames (1758) 72 The third Part, which is the Hole or Cod, Inch and Quarter wet and dry.
d. Chess. (See quots.)
1894J. Mason Princ. Chess i. 24 Hole, a square on the third or fourth rank, neither commanded, nor liable to be commanded, by any friendly Pawn. 1895H. E. Bird Chess Novelties 115 KBP was followed by QP2, leaving at once a landing square (a nasty hole Steinitz would call it) for opponent's pieces. 1922Brit. Chess Mag. Feb. 105/2 The net result of the two moves is to create a hole at White's Q Kt 4. 1955Chess (‘Know the Game' Series) 26/1 Another example of weakness in the pawn-formation is that of ‘holes’ or ‘fore-posts’ which may be occupied successfully by an opposing piece. 1968O. Hindle Further Steps in Chess iv. 49 Holes..are squares which the defender can no longer protect with his pawns. They are thus ideal posts for attacking pieces, which can settle on them without fear of being easily driven off.
e. Eton Fives. A small square portion of the floor enclosed by the pepper-box and step. Phr. to be in holes; hence attrib. in holes innings.
1897Encycl. Sport. I 399 A, who begins serving, is bound to give C—who is said to be ‘in holes’—the sort of service which he prefers. Ibid. 400 All alike differ from Eton Courts in having no pepper-box, hole, or step. Ibid. 402 In the first innings of a game A (who goes in first) is said to have ‘holes innings’, i.e., when both A and B have been put out, A will be ‘in holes’.
f. Physics. A position from which an electron is absent: orig. a concept in the theory of the positron, now esp. a position in a semiconductor which may be regarded as a mobile carrier of a positive charge. Also attrib. and Comb.
1930P. A. M. Dirac in Proc. R. Soc. A. CXXVI. 362 Only the small departures from exact uniformity, brought about by some of the negative-energy states being unoccupied, can we hope to observe. Let us examine the properties of the vacant states or ‘holes’. 1933Ibid. CXXXIX. 714 The few states which are unoccupied behave like ordinary particles with positive kinetic energy and with a positive charge. Dirac originally wished to identify these ‘holes’ with protons, but this had to be abandoned when it was found that the holes necessarily have the same mass as negative electrons. 1934P. A. M. Dirac in Proc. Cambr. Phil. Soc. XXX. 150 Any unoccupied negative-energy states would be observable to us, as holes in the distribution of negative-energy electrons, but these holes would appear as particles with positive kinetic energy... It seems reasonable..to identify these holes with the recently discovered positrons. 1936W. Heitler Quantum Theory of Radiation 188 Thus..positive electrons are represented as holes in the distribution of electrons filling up the negative energy states. 1940Nature 29 June 998/2 It is suggested..that in cuprous oxide the vacant lattice points and the points from which an electron is missing (positive holes) are dissociated. 1948Physical Rev. LXXIV. 230/2 As a result, the current in the forward direction with respect to the block is composed in large part of holes, i.e., of carriers of sign opposite to those normally in excess in the body of the block. 1949[see acceptor 3]. 1954Electronic Engin. XXVI. 34 Positive charge carriers known as ‘holes’... These holes are thought to have different mean life-times and mobilities in different diodes. 1957Ibid. XXIX. 3 As all transistors have a finite base width all transistors must show hole storage effects due to the time taken for holes to cross the base from emitter to collector. 1962Simpson & Richards Junction Transistors ii. 32 Also, because impurities or defects that trap electrons may have characteristics quite different from those of their hole-trapping counterparts, the lifetime of minority carriers may be quite different in p-type and n-type materials of similar quality. 1966New Scientist 11 Aug. 317/3 Travel is limited to the distance covered before electron and hole annihilate one another.
5. local U.S.
a. An indentation or opening in the coast; a small bay, a cove.
1639in Virginia Hist. Mag. (1895) III. 31 Yf the shipps be p'mitted to goe at pleasure and ride in every hole as is desired by them. 1748H. Ellis Hudson's Bay 149 This [flag] was to be raised at a good anchoring place called Five-Fathom Hole. 1807C. W. Janson Stranger in Amer. 390 Tobacco is..conveyed then down the river to Hobbs' Hole, where ships in the European trade lie ready to receive them.
b. A grassy valley surrounded by mountains.
6. = holl, hold (n.2) of a ship.
1483Cath. Angl. 187/2 An Hole,..columbar est nauis. 1678Marvell Growth Popery 11 The Hole of some Amsterdam Fly-boat. 1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1789) H iij b, The pointers..are..fixed across the hole diagonally. 1882Nares Seamanship (ed. 6) 97 Abaft the main hole.
II. A perforation, and connected senses.
7. a. An aperture passing through anything; a perforation, opening.
c725Corpus Gloss. 1900 Spiramentum, hol. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 201 We..cumeð to þe stone, þe haueð fif hole narewe, þat is..his holie fif wunden. c1290Beket 1144 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 139 Þoruȝ þe churche he made an hol. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints, Ninian 505 Ane alde coble þare he fand, þat mony hoilis in it had. c1400Destr. Troy 13501 Hit happit hym in hast the hoole for to fynd Of the cave. 14..Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 627/12 Þe hoole of a prevay, gumphus. a1529Skelton Merrie T. in Shaks. Jest Bk. (1864) II. 21 What shall those hoales serue for?..holes to look out to see thy enemyes. 1674tr. Martiniere's Voy. North. C. 85 A top the House..there is a hole or window left for light to come in. 1687Lond. Gaz. No. 2218/4 A new fashionable Suit..gold frost Buttons, and gold Holes. 1773Cook's Voy. in Hawkesworth Voy. II. 332 A musket was fired..which fortunately struck the boat..and made two holes in her side. 1896Times 16 Dec. 5/2 The service bullet was found to have drilled clean holes, and..the hole of exit was little, if any, larger than the hole of entry.
fig.1611Bible Transl. Pref. 1 If there be any hole left for cauill to enter.
b. hole in the wall, (an originally disparaging term for) any small, obscure place; spec. in the U.S., a place where alcoholic drinks are sold illegally. Applied, esp. attrib., to a business that is very small, mean, dingy, or the like, or to a person running such a business.
1822W. Hazlitt in New Monthly Mag. IV. 102, I had heard Mr. James Simpkins..when the character of the Hole in the Wall was brought in question, observe—‘The house is a very good house, and the company quite genteel.’ 1856Iroquois Republican (Middleport, Ill.) 25 Dec. 2/3 A ‘grocery’—a ‘doggery’ —a ‘hole-in-the-wall’—is an ‘odious damned spot’ in any community. 1870Dickens E. Drood xviii. 142 The Gate House, of which..the Verger's hole in the wall was an appanage or subsidiary part. 1887Minnesota Gen. Statutes Suppl. (1888) 248 Whoever shall attempt to evade or violate any of the laws of this state..by means of the artifice or contrivance known as the ‘Blind Pig’, or ‘Hole in the Wall’..shall..be punished. 1896C. H. Shinn Story of the Mine 51 Many lived in ‘dug-outs’, which they called ‘holes in the wall’. 1919Detective Story Mag. 25 Nov. 129 He breakfasted at a hole-in-the-wall lunch room before starting out on his quest. 1923D. Sells Brit. Trade Boards System iv. ii. 259 The emphasis which reputable employers lay upon the benefit of Trade Boards in eliminating the ‘hole in the wall’ employer..from the field of industry, can hardly be overstated. 1940F. Riesenberg Golden Gate 212 Craft that could go into the ‘holes in the wall’ along the ragged Pacific Coast. 1945E. S. Gardner Case of Gold-Digger's Purse (1948) xiii. 153 It's just a little place—just a little lunch counter. Sort of a hole in the wall. 1945‘L. Lewis’ Birthday Murder (1951) iii. 37 Sawn scorned..decadent play spots of the economically fortunate, and would insist on going to a hole in the wall infested by cockroaches, cocottes and cab drivers. 1951C. W. Mills White Collar i. ii. 30 The hole-in-the-wall business, also known as a Mom-and-Pop store. 1953W. R. Burnett Vanity Row viii. 60 A Bohemian section of the town..dotted with little..hole-in-the-wall cafés. 1958Time 3 Feb. 23/1 To survive, most workers have to take second jobs, many of them in the innumerable hole-in-the-wall private enterprises that have sprung up. 1973J. Goodfield Courier to Peking ix. 100 One of her favourite places was more a hole-in-the-wall than a shop.
c. in holes: perforated with holes, worn into holes.
1851Mayhew London Labour II. 470/2, I can't abide this muckydam [sc. macadam] ..it's sloppy stuff, and goes so bad in holes. 1926A. Christie Murder R. Ackroyd x. 127 He wouldn't even buy new face towels, though I told him the old ones were in holes.
d. Aeronautics. hole in the air: an old name for an air-pocket (air n.1 III. 1).
1911G. C. Loening Monoplanes & Biplanes xiv. 305 The air is very variable, and even on a relatively calm day there are likely to be ‘holes in the air’. 1916H. Barber Aeroplane Speaks 51 Now the Aeroplane is almost over the river, and the next instant it suddenly drops into a ‘hole in the air’. 1917C. C. Turner Aircraft of To-day vi. 98 The terms ‘air-pocket’ and ‘hole in the air’ are frequently heard in flying circles.
e. colloq. hole in (the) heart: a congenital malformation of the heart in which there is an abnormal communication between the right and left sides.
1958Hammersmith Post 25 July 1/4 (heading) Mother reassured over ‘hole in heart’ operation. Ibid., A seven-year-old boy..is due to have a ‘hole in heart’ operation. 1959Times Lit. Suppl. 25 Sept. 549/5 The author describes the operation for a septal defect—the condition popularly known as a ‘hole in the heart’. 1961Listener 2 Nov. 693/1 The oxygenator took over the duties of heart and lung in the ‘hole-in-the-heart’ operation. 1966Guardian 17 May 3/4 Oxygen 15..is being used..for the diagnosis of the hole-in-the-heart condition.
8. The orifice of any organ or part of the body. spec. (slang) The mouth, the anus, or the female external genital organs.
c1340Cursor M. 528 (Trin.) Seuen holes haþ mannes heed euen. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xxii. 100 Þai hafe in steed of þaire mouth a lytill hole. c1475Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 749/8 Hec arteria, the hole of the throt. 1486Bk. St. Albans B j b, The Hoolis in the hawkes beke bene callede the Nares. 1530Palsgr. 232/1 Hole that swete or heres cometh out at, pore. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. ii. iv. 94 This driveling Love is like a great Naturall, that runs lolling vp and downe to hid his bable in a hole. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 223 There are seven crosse ribs in his neck, and seven from his reins to his hole. 1615Crooke Body of Man 611 A Membrane where⁓with the hoale of the eare is stopped. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 117 The hole of the Nostril full round. 1719D'Urfey Pills IV. 72 It has a Head much like a Mole's, And yet it loves to creep in Holes: The Fairest She that e'er took Life, For love of this, became a Wife. c1744in Oxf. Dict. Nursery Rhymes (1951) 372 Little Robin red breast, Sitting on a pole, Niddle, Noddle, Went his head, And Poop went his Hole. 1922Joyce Ulysses 748 My hole is itching me. 1959I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. iii. 49 Habitual grumblers in London's East End receive the poetic injunction: ‘Oo, shut yer moanin' 'ole’. 1966L. Cohen Beautiful Losers (1970) i. 9 Don't give me this all diamond shit, shove it up your occult hole.
9. fig. A flaw, fault, ground for blame. Usually in phr. to pick a hole or holes in something; formerly also to find (pick, make) a hole in a person's coat.
1553T. Wilson Rhet. (1580) 98 The Lawiers lacke no cases..Is his Lease long..Then (qth he) let me alone with it, I will find a hole in it. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, iii. vi. 88 If I finde a hole in his Coat, I will tell him my minde. 1648Needham Plea for King 21 Every ambitious popular person would be ready to pick holes in their Coates, to bring them into disfavour of the People. 1682Wood Life 10 Feb. (O.H.S.) III. 4 If they did not appeare, there might some hole be picked in their charter. 1789Burns Capt. Grose's Peregrin. i, If there's a hole in a' your coats, I rede you tent it. 1871Miss Mulock Fair France i. 4 We do not go to visit a neighbour, in order to pick holes in him and his establishment. 1894Aspects Mod. Oxford 93 Any one can pick holes in the University system of teaching and examination.
†10.
a. An old game in which balls were rolled through little cavities or arches; called also Pigeon-hole, Troll-madam, Trunks. Cf. nine-holes.
b. An old game of cards.
1611Cotgr., Trou Madame, the Game called Trunkes, or the Hole. 1621J. Taylor (Water P.) Motto Wks. (1630) 54/2 Ruffe, slam, Trump, noddy, whisk, hole, Sant, New-cut. 1816Sporting Mag. XLVIII. 178 Another game called holes was occasionally played.
III. 11. Phrases. to be in the hole U.S.: to be in (usu. financial) difficulties (cf. 3). a hole in the head, esp. in phr. to need (something) like a hole in the head (cf. Yiddish ich darf es vi a loch in kop): applied to something not desired at all or something useless. to make a hole (in anything): to use up, or cause the loss of, a considerable amount of anything; to create a loss. to make a hole in the water: see water n. 6 f. a round peg (or man) in a square hole (and vice versa): one whose situation does not fit his special aptitudes. to pick a hole or holes in: see sense 9. to put in the hole (slang): to swindle, defraud. to take (something) a hole lower: to take down, humiliate, humble; cf. button-hole 1 b.
1591Lyly Endym. iii. iii, He hath taken his thoughts a hole lower, and saith..he will vaile bonet to beautie. 1611Cotgr., Humilié, humbled..taken a hole lower. 1617Moryson Itin. ii. 183 To lay five hundred of your best men on the earth, which losse will make a great hole in your Armie. 1625Burges Pers. Tithes 75 It will make a greater hole in thy conscience, then it can in thine estate by parting with it. 1706Mrs. Ray in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 208 Mr. Ray did not leave {pstlg}40 a year..out of which taxes, repairs, and quit-rent make a great hole. 1812J. H. Vaux Vocab. Flash Lang. in Mem. (1964) 243 To put a person in the hole, to defraud him of his due share of the booty by embezzling a part of the property, or the money, it is fenced for; this phrase also applies generally to defrauding anyone with whom you are confidentially connected of what is justly his due. 1833Session Papers 3 Jan. 115/1 Miller..said they had put him in the hole, and he..would say where they were; by putting him in the hole, I understand they did not take the property away as he expected. 1887Spectator 26 Mar. 412/2 An average daily consumption of four glasses..makes a hole in the income of the working class. 1890Centralia (Wash.) Chron. 18 Sept. 3/2 His failure leaves a number of our local dealers in the hole for amounts ranging from {pstlg}200 down. 1893L. W. Moore His Own Story xxi. 293 What was said at that time about his being ‘put in the hole’, I cannot say; but I do know he held me blameless, for none of the funds, except my own share, was ever in my possession. a1895Ld. C. E. Paget Autobiog. iii. (1896) 72 The Admiralty would not rescind their orders, so we were a round man in a square hole, and vice versâ. 1897Boston Jrnl. 12 Mar. 10/1 The sporting-man was $40 in the hole. 1916Lit. Digest 8 Jan. 87/1 The Wards were in the hole to the extent of close to $800,000. 1926J. Black You can't Win ix. 104, I thought you put me in the hole for some coin, but I found out that the people lost just what you both said. 1939Wodehouse Uncle Fred in Springtime iii. 45 How in the world did you manage to get in the hole for a sum like that? 1951in M. McLuhan Mech. Bride 29/2 A smart operator needs a dame like he needs a hole in the head. 1951J. D. Salinger Catcher in Rye xiv. 91 The Disciples..were about as much use to Him as a hole in the head. 1955W. Gaddis Recognitions i. iii. 101, I need this drink like I need a hole in the head. 1971D. Creed Trial of Lobo Icheka xiii. 133 He needed Petersen about as much as he needed a hole in the head.
IV.
12. attrib. and Comb., as a. attrib. (sense 4 a) hole game, hole play; hole-card, in stud poker, a card which has been dealt face down; also fig.; hole-high a. (see quots.); hole-mouth(ed) Archæol., said of pottery vessels without a neck; hole-nester, a bird that nests in a hole; so hole-nesting ppl. a.; hole-proof a., that will not wear into holes; hole saw = crown-saw (crown n. 35); b. objective, as hole-cutter, hole-digger, hole-digging, hole-picking, hole-piercing, hole-punched, hole-puncher, hole-stopper; c. locative, as hole-breeder, hole-builder, hole-creeping n. and adj.; d. hole-board (see quot.); hole-creeper, a sneaking thief; hole-man (see quot.); hole-stitch (see quot.).
1874Knight Dict. Mech., Compass-board, the *hole-board of the loom for fancy weaving. It is an upright board of the loom through which pass the neck-twines.
1889F. A. Knight By Leafy Ways 155 The kingfisher, another *hole⁓breeder.
1891Daily News 16 Feb. 5/1 Her eggs..are white, like those of most *hole-builders.
1908Sat. Even. Post 5 Dec. 19/2 Scarcely glancing at *his hole card Phelps let him take the pot, and it became Phelps' deal. 1926C. E. Mulford Bar 20 rides Again xxi. 282 Beginnin' with this hand I'm bettin' five hundred blind on th' hole-card, an' seein' if I can't bring this game to a finish. 1952J. Steinbeck East of Eden ix. 79 The preacher turned over his hole-card, the sure-fire card. 1971J. Ball First Team (1972) xxiii. 353 We may be playing with a bust hand; we don't know if our hole card has been stolen or not.
1462in Scrope Hist. Castle Combe (1852) 323 Communis *holecreppar anserum et porcellorum tenentium.
1638Ford Fancies iii. iii, The page, that *hole-creeping page. 1852Scrope Hist. Castle Combe 235 He qualified himself..by ‘hole-creeping’ after his neighbours' geese and pigs.
1897Westm. Gaz. 9 Mar. 8/3 Drillers and *hole-cutters.
1876Preece & Sivewright Telegraphy 188 To guide the *hole-diggers in the event of the marks..having been removed.
Ibid. 189 *Hole-digging..for a telegraph pole.
1895Westm. Gaz. 6 May 7/2 There is all the difference..between the stroke and the *hole game [at golf], and at least a score of men have some chance.
1897Encycl. Sports I. 472/2 A ball is said to be *hole high when it is played on to the putting green from a distance. 1961J. S. Salak Dict. Amer. Sports 228 Hole-high (golf), a point even with the hole but to one side or the other.
1851Mayhew Lond. Labour (1861) II. 447 The *holeman, who goes into the cesspool.
1909Cent. Dict. Suppl., *Hole-mouthed vase. 1960K. M. Kenyon Archæol. in Holy Land v. 124 The type of jar, known as the hole-mouth jar, neckless with a simple in-curved rim, which was used for cooking and storage, may be as much as 3 feet in height.
1938Brit. Birds XXXI. 242 In the present experiments three *hole-nesting species..were selected. Ibid. XXXII. 31 In similar experiments with another hole-nester..the male attacked the male mount but..ignored the female mount. 1953N. Tinbergen Herring Gull's World x. 94 Territory in the Herring Gull most certainly has nothing to do with the reservation of a nesting site..as it has in hole-nesting birds.
1801C. Gadsden in J. Adams' Wks. (1854) IX. 580 That his public actions may be judged of..without any captious *hole⁓picking.
1889Linskill Golf iii. (1895) 13 Besides ‘*hole play’, which involves playing a succession of small matches from hole to hole round the links, there is also what is called ‘score play’.
1913Work 17 May 102 A..cloth that will not tear—in fact, is *hole-proof. 1915Truth LXXVIII. 848/1 Another customer tells me her experience in regard to some ‘hole-proof’ hose. 1962Economist 2 June 897/1 Stockings..to be ladderproof, although not holeproof.
1956S. Bellow Seize Day (1957) ii. 42 He put the *hole-punched cards in his pocket. 1961Lebende Sprachen VI. 70/1 *Hole puncher.
1961Webster, *Hole saw. 1967Catal. Black & Decker Powertools, A drill with power to spare... Will drive holesaws up to 1½{pp} dia.
1882Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework 253/2 *Hole Stitch, a stitch used in Pillow Lace making, to form holes or small round spots in the centre of the thick parts of a pattern.
1794Wolcott (P. Pindar) Wks. II. 85 A neighbouring town..Begg'd him to be their tinker—their *hole-stopper.
Add:[II.] [7.] [b.] (b) hole-in-the-wall (colloq., chiefly Brit.), an automatic teller machine installed in the (outside) wall of a bank or other building.
1985Guardian 9 Feb. 24 (heading) Just ask at the hole in the wall. 1987Today 18 Feb. 23/3 Three [banks], along with Bank of Scotland..are set to unveil their joint hole-in-the-wall cash machine network. 1989Times 30 Aug. 23/2 ‘Phantom’ cash withdrawals from hole-in-the-wall dispensers are the biggest grievance. 1992Independent 23 Apr. 2/1 They believe the men may be responsible for several early-morning ‘hole-in-the-wall’ raids in London and Kent.
▸ hole punch n. any of various devices for piercing a hole or holes in materials, esp. for punching holes in paper, so as to allow for binding or filing (cf. hole-puncher n. at Compounds 4); (also U.S.) a small, round piece of paper punched out by such a device.
1929Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 24 Dec. 805/1 Chisels, gouges, wood-carving knives, shoemakers' knives, *hole punches, paring knives, pincers, nippers, [etc.]. 1964Court of Customs & Patent Appeals Reports 51 69 The Government appeals from the judgment of the Customs Court which overruled the collector's classification of the involved leather hole punch and eyelet fastener. 1967J. A. Wiens in Ecology 48 1007/2 A 6 mm aperture (the size of a standard paper hole punch). 1981N.Y. Times (Nexis) 2 Aug. i. 3/1 The most feared sanction is the hole punch. Standard equipment for traffic officers, it can be used on the spot to perforate a driver's license. 1985Catal. Sale Horse-drawn Vehicles (Thimbleby & Shorland) 6 Mar. 16 Pair of unusual small boot-pulls with hinged handles incorporating a button hook, hole punch, awl and screwdriver. 1996Independent 4 Apr. ii. 17/2 The 146th item is my hole punch, used to put work into their personal portfolios. 2000Arlington (Texas) Morning News (Electronic ed.) 21 Apr. You can buy confetti at a craft store, make your own with hole punches and colored paper or obtain leftover hole punches from local printers.
▪ II. hole, v.1|həʊl|
Forms: 1 holian, 3 holien, 4–5 hoole(n, 7 hoale, Sc. hoile (oi = ō), 4– hole.
[OE. holian to hollow out, excavate = OHG. holôn, Goth. hulôn, f. hol-, holl a.]
I. To make a hole.
1. a. trans. To hollow out; to make a hole or cavity in; to perforate, pierce.
c1000ælfric Hom. II. 162 Ða ᵹebroðra..ᵹemetton ðone clud ða iu swætende; and hi ða hwæthweᵹa holodon. c1330R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 6836 Þe wal þey holede. c1440Promp. Parv. 243/1 Holyn, or boryn (P. hoolen, or make hoolys), cavo, perforo, terebro. 1578Lyte Dodoens vi. lviii. 746 Before they be holed or pearsed. 1648Markham Housew. Gard. iii. x. (1668) 77, I use..a piece of wood hoal'd. 1864Standard 29 Nov. 3/3 She [the ship] has holed her bottom. 1890Times 27 Dec. 9/1 Some 80 miles of the route already holed [for telegraph posts].
b. To make holes in (the earth) in agriculture; to dibble; to dig trenches for planting sugar-canes.
1756P. Browne Jamaica 130 You begin to hole and continue to open the ground gradually. 1842J. W. Orderson Creol. i. 5 Occasionally ‘holing’ his neighbours' fields. 1890Jrnl. Soc. Arts 15 Aug. 827/2 Preliminary to the all-important progressive step in coffee culture, that of transplanting, is ‘holing’.
c. To fire a bullet into.
1847Trollope Macdermots I. iv. 59 We'll hole him till there ar'nt a bit left in him to hole. a1882― Land-leaguers (1883) I. ii. 34 Keep yourself from being holed as they holed Muster Bingham the other day.
2. To sink (a shaft), drive (a tunnel) through.
1708J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 13 We design to hole our Pit. 1816Chron. in Ann. Reg. 129 The Tunnel..was, after thirteen years' incessant labour, holed..with great accuracy. 1870Daily News 30 Nov., Next week this shaft will be holed to the 100 fathom level.
3. Mining. To undercut (the coal) in a seam so as to release it from the other strata.
1829Glover Hist. Derby I. 58 A set of colliers, called holers, who begin in the right and hole or undermine all the bank or face of the coal. 1861Temple Bar Mag. III. 137 The collier a hundred fathoms down..holing under the coal. 1867W. W. Smyth Coal & Coal-Mining, In breaking down or getting the coal, the first operation is to bench, kirve, or hole it along the bottom of the seam.
4. intr. To make a hole or holes; to dig. Esp. in Mining: to make a hole through from one working to another.
a1225Ancr. R. 130 Þe mid hore lustes ne holieð nout aduneward, ase doð þe uoxes. 1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 10736 Þys mynur..wroȝt on a day, and holed yn þe hyl. 1708J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 46 They frequently hole, or cut through from one Board to another. 1890Melbourne Argus 29 May 9/8 From the bottom of the workings they sank 7 ft...and holed through to the crosscut.
II. To put or go into a hole.
5. trans. To put into a hole; to put in prison; to plant (sugar-canes) in holes or trenches.
1608Middleton Mad World iv. v, She could not endure the sight of a man, forsooth, but run and hole herself presently. 1618J. Taylor (Water P.) Waterman's Suit Wks. (1872) 14 So their prodigal sons are holed in some loathsome jail. 1828Craven Dial., s.v., ‘To hole a person’, to send him to gaol. 1866Morning Star 27 Sept. 4/5 To work hard in holing canes or in throwing out trenches.
6. a. spec. in Golf, Billiards, Bagatelle. To drive (the ball) into a hole or pocket. Also to hole out.
1803M. Charlton Wife & Mistress I. 264 He contrived to hole both white and red ball at the next stroke. 1819Rees Cycl. s.v. Billiards, If the striker holes his adversary's ball, or forces it over the table, or on a cushion..he loses two points. 1857Chambers' Inform. II. 693/2 (Golf) The best club for holing out the ball. 1880Boy's Own Bk. 633 Bagatelle..The object..is to ‘hole’ the balls. 1883Standard 16 Nov. 5/2 The number of strokes he requires to take before ‘holeing’ the ball [at golf]. 1891Golf Rules No. 35 in Linskill Golf (1895) 45 If the ball rest against the flag-stick when in the hole, the player shall be entitled to remove the stick, and, if the ball fall in, it shall be considered as holed out in the previous stroke.
b. absol. Golf. To drive the ball into a hole. to hole (out) in one: to achieve a ‘hole in one’ (see hole n. 4 a); also fig.
1867Cornh. Mag. Apr. 492 The deadly accuracy with which they approach the hole, and ‘hole out’, as it is called. 1886‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports 754/2 He who succeeds in holeing in fewer strokes than his opponent wins that hole. 1928D. L. Sayers Unpleasantness at Bellona Club xii. 141 ‘I say we shall find a long scratch on the paint,’ said Parker... ‘Holed it in one, Charles.’ 1939‘N. Blake’ Smiler with Knife iii. 49 ‘Oh, E.B. The E.B. printed on the flag we found in that locker?’ ‘Holed out in one.’ 1971Daily Tel. 12 June 1/5 John Hudson made golfing history in the Martini tournament..yesterday, holing in one at successive holes.
c. Golf. To drive the ball into (a hole).
1894Westm. Gaz. 29 Sept. 7/1 Mr. W. T. Griffin holed the eighth hole of the..links—100 yards—in one.
7. intr. To go into a hole. to hole up, (a) to retire to a hole for hibernation; also, to seek shelter, to seek (temporary) quarters; (b) to lie in wait or in ambush, to hide (chiefly U.S. slang).
1614B. Jonson Barth. Fair iv. iv, Let him hole there. 1625― Staple of N. v. i, Wi' your worming braine..Which I shall see you hole with very shortly: A fine round head, when those two lugs are off, To trundle through a pillory. 1688Shadwell Sqr. Alsatia v. i, The rogue is hol'd some⁓where. 1828Craven Dial., Hole, to earth as a fox. 1875J. Burroughs Winter Sunshine 279 Only five days was I compelled to ‘hole up’ in my state-room. 1878Scribner's Mag. XV. 303/1 The fox..has run to earth, or, as we have it, ‘has holed’. 1890L. D'Oyle Notches 70 It was getting time for the bears to ‘hole-up’. 1910Mrs. H. Ward Canadian Born ix. 181 I'm a poor old broken-down..miner, who wants to hole-up somewhere, and get comfortable for his old age. 1912Mulford & Clay Buck Peters xxvii. 235 Go slow, Tex; mebby he's holin' up on us, like he did on Buck. 1924C. E. Mulford Rustlers' Valley xii. 141 Now you'll mebby have to take to th' hills an' hole up just when I need you most. 1925― Cottonwood Gulch xvi. 218 It would have been only a matter of a few minutes before they would have forced him to abandon the horse and to hole up on the defensive, to make a losing fight. 1929Faulkner Sartoris iv. 282 Hole up here, you potlickin' fool. 1929D. Hammett Red Harvest xviii. 179 You'll have to..take a plant on Willsson's... I hear whisper Thaler's holing-up there. 1939R. Chandler Big Sleep xxvii. 240 That's the place where she's holed up. 1951S. Lewis World so Wide xii. 135 We've got to begin thinking about holing up for the night. 1952Wodehouse Pigs have Wings ix. 178 The poltergeist, for such he assumed it to be, appeared to have holed up behind the door that led presumably to the kitchen. 1954‘N. Blake’ Whisper in Gloom ii. xiv. 194, I bet you Elmer's holed up in Harwich, or somewhere near it. 1961G. Greene Burnt-Out Case ii. iii. 37 Who would expect to find the Querry holed up in a leproserie? 1973D. Jordan Nile Green xlv. 234 We were holed up in the flat, drinking Gold Star beer.
† III. 8. intr. To become full of holes. Obs.
1611Cotgr., Se Trouër, to hole, to grow full of holes.
IV.
9. trans. To record by punching a hole in an allotted space in a card.
1911Chambers's Jrnl. May 335/2 Not only are the old-time data, such as age,..‘holed’ into the card, but whether you are married or single. Ibid. 336/2 In this machine the data ‘holed’ in every tag can be all or partly recorded on another form.
▪ III. † hole, v.2 Obs.
Forms: 1 hólian, 3 holen.
[OE. hólian, cogn. with Goth. hôlôn to treat with violence; cf. OHG. huolan to deceive.]
a. trans. To oppress.
b. intr. To commit oppression.
c1000Lamb. Ps. cxviii[i]. 121 (Bosw.) Ne sele ðu me holiendum me [Vulg. calumniantibus me]. c1200Ormin 9319 Þatt holeþþ o þe laȝhe leod, & rippeþþ hemm & ræfeþþ.
▪ IV. hole
see holl a., hele v.1, hull.
▪ V. hole, -ful, -ly, -some etc.,
the common early (and etymological) spelling of whole, etc. |