earholen.

c1350 Nominale (Cambr. Ee.4.20) in Trans. Philol. Soc. (1906) 3* Lapet oraile et molet, Dewelappe here and herehole.

?1527 L. Andrewe tr. Noble Lyfe Bestes xlii. sig. div^v/1 A meruelous beste is critecus the whiche dwelleth in the erth..& it hath none eares but it hathe eare holes.

1691 J. Ray Wisdom of God 109 Have very small Ears, and Ear-holes, as the Cetaceous Fishes have.

1731 E. Albin Nat. Hist. Birds I. 9 The Ear-holes three times as big as those of the White Owls.

1863 Anthropol. Rev. 1 32 The great naturalist was right..as to the abstract possibility of fastening earrings into a crocodile's ear-holes.

1966 New Statesman 25 Feb. 265/2 [In the Wallis Islands] a man can be fined two dollars for entering church with a piece of tobacco stuck in his earhole.

1998 H. Strachan Way Up Way Out i. 3 The pursed-up lips, like a mouse's earhole, confirmed without speech something that was new to me.

1843 Bell's Life in London 5 Feb. Spring got a decided advantage in an ear-hole catch, and gave him two good throws.

1847 Era 21 Nov. 5/3 His adversary slugged him on the left earhole.

1869 Temple Bar Mar. 542 He..enforced his arguments by giving his opponent what the convicts called a punch in the ear-hole, and extracting the claret from the most prominent feature in his ‘counting-house’.

1916 ‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin ii. 27 I'll give yer a clip 'longside the ear'ole if you ain't careful.

1923 J. Manchon Le Slang (at cited word) Give 'im a plug in the ear-hole!

1962 John o' London's 11 Jan. 27/3 Before you know it you'll be out on your earhole.

2005 J. Martyn Ringfort to Runway i. i. 1 Jimmy Reilly..learned American as a kid.., and later ‘goddam’ ‘sonofabitch’ and ‘mothersomething’ which his father cut short with a clip around the ear-hole.