1792 J. Throsby Excursions Leics. Suppl. xxvi. 362 A pretty jointed brick wall, with here and there a peep hole, like a pitch hole in a barn.

1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 47 A man will unload nearly two loads of grain drawn into the barn and unloaded upon the mow, while he could unload one at a pitch-hole.

1890 S. S. Buckman John Darke's Sojourn in Cotteswolds viii. 67 The end wall [of the barn] was pierced for a large pitch-hole.

1958 H. G. Sanders Outl. Brit. Crop Husbandry (ed. 3) 282 Where no elevator is used a ‘pitchhole’, or gap, must be left in the roof.

1857 J. Gorgas 6 Feb. in S. W. Wiggins Jrnl. (1995) i. 6 The sleighing is not good on account of the superabundance of snow on the roads which causes it to wear into pitchholes.

1862 R. F. Burton City of Saints (ed. 2) i. 18 As we sped onward we soon made acquaintance with a traditionally familiar feature, the ‘pitch-holes,’ or ‘chuck-holes’..which render traveling over the prairies at times a sore task. They are gullies and gutters, not unlike the Canadian ‘cahues’ of snow formation.

1874 2nd Rep. Vermont State Board Agric. 1873–4 659 The highways leading to our larger villages..are frequently so full of pitchholes or ‘cahoos’ as to render them totally unfit for travel.

1962 D. J. Dickie Great Golden Plain 288 The cat train rocks and plunges over the hummocks and pitch holes in the ice and snow roads.

2001 Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) (Nexis) 15 Mar. In going over a pitchhole in the road both were thrown forward over the dashboard.

1900 Westm. Gaz. 21 July 3/1 The wonderful pitch-hole..becomes a lively volcano.

1908 S. A. D. Puter & H. Stevens Looters of Public Domain 390 Timber with pitch holes, or small openings in the butt of the tree denote serious defects.