hole
/həʊl
/noun
1A hollow place in a solid body or surface: the dog had dug a hole in the ground...
- Transplant the seedlings in the normal manner by making a small hole through the surface mulch/manure and plant them into it.
- Jay mounded flour, made a hole in it, and dumped in a pinch of salt and then an egg.
- He's been out in the car park for the last couple of weeks, digging a big hole in the ground.
Synonyms
pit, ditch, trench, cavity, crater, depression, hollow;
well, borehole, excavation, shaft, mineshaft, dugout;
cave, cavern, pothole, chamber, gorge, chasm, canyon, ravine
1.1An aperture passing through something: he had a hole in his sock...
- Take a large sewing needle to puncture evenly spaced holes around the top and bottom of the shade.
- We worked along the steel wall passing large circular holes where the heavy brass portholes had once been.
- The roof is leaking, there are holes in the floor, the sewage pipes are broken, the heating doesn't work - there is no money in the kitty.
Synonyms
opening, aperture, gap, space, orifice, slot, vent, outlet, chink, breach;
break, crack, leak, rift, rupture;
puncture, perforation, cut, incision, split, gash, rent, slit, cleft, crevice, fissure;
spyhole, peephole, keyhole;
Medicine foramen
archaic loophole
1.2A cavity or receptacle on a golf course, typically one of eighteen or nine, into which the ball must be hit.Steve Ryser and Mike Franklin sunk a long putt each on holes nine and eighteen respectively....
- Lytham is a classic seaside links, nine flattish holes out, nine flattish holes in.
- This usually occurs on short putts as golfers try to steer the ball toward the hole.
1.3One of the sections of a golf course or the divisions of play in a game of golf: Stephen lost the first three holes to Eric...
- They completed 72 holes at four golf courses in one day to raise more than £10,000 for Cancer Research.
- The extent of my golf experience comes down to 18 holes on the miniature golf course at Nifty Fifty's.
- Top lawyers to play 18 holes at 18 golf courses in 12 hours to raise funds for meningitis research
1.4An animal’s burrow: a fox’s hole...
- While walking this earth he commented that foxes had holes and birds had nests in which to live, but he had ‘nowhere to lay his head’.
- Hounds that have successfully tracked a fox are trained to pull it or dig it out of its hole, and the fox is killed.
- From holes, burrows, and crevices, the creatures of the desert night crawled.
Synonyms
burrow, lair, den, covert, earth, sett, drey, retreat, shelter, cave
1.5 [in place names] A valley: Seaton Hole...
- Tonight's report takes us to the Grand Teton National Park, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
1.6 Physics A position from which an electron is absent, especially one regarded as a mobile carrier of positive charge in a semiconductor.This process leaves the top and bottom surfaces with an excess of charge which attracts mobile electrons or holes....
- Electrons are not the only charge carriers; holes, or open spaces in bonding sites can also be used in conduction.
- Irradiating such quantum dots with ultraviolet light creates excited electrons and the positive holes they leave behind.
2A place or position that needs to be filled because someone or something is no longer there: she is missed terribly and her death has left a hole in all our lives...
- In an emotional message days after Ivan's death, Mr Cameron told of the "hole" left in his life by the youngster's death.
2.1A shortcoming, weakness, or flaw in a plan, argument, etc. intriguing as it sounds, the theory is full of holes...
- Good on the surface, but as many have pointed out, all the plot holes and problems show up when you think about it for more than 10 seconds.
- One insider said the reason for the explosion of counterfeiting was the hole still existing in the law.
- Within 24 hr of the announcement, wily business pilots had figured out the plan was full of holes.
Synonyms
flaw, fault, defect, weakness, weak point, shortcoming, inconsistency, discrepancy, loophole, error, mistake, fallacy
3 informal An unpleasant place: she had wasted a whole lifetime in this hole of a town...
- Her sudden idea to bring Ryan with her, to the hole of a town she originated from, had not been discussed with him.
- Students were aggrieved at the possibility of being ‘stuck renting a hole in Cowley’ as Jessop put it.
- Four more fights in this hole before we get the hell out of here.
Synonyms
hovel, slum, shack, mess
informal dump, dive, pigsty, tip, joint
3.1An awkward situation: the team are in a bit of a hole and it’s a case of seeing if they can dig themselves out...
- The stage was huge - the World Cup - his team was in a hole, and the situation was certainly death or glory.
- The criticism of the state companies has surfaced at a time when they appear to be climbing out of the financial holes into which they stumbled in the 1990s.
- It took us 20 years to get in this hole and it's going to take us 20 years to get out.
verb [with object]
1Make a hole or holes in: a fuel tank was holed by the attack and a fire started...
- Two days later it was holed and drifting landwards with oil gushing out of its tanks.
- Casualties were light but they lost one of their ships when it hit a rock and was holed.
- The vessel was holed in numerous tanks with loss of crude and resultant pollution.
Synonyms
puncture, make a hole in, perforate, pierce, penetrate, rupture, spike, stab, split, slit, rent, lacerate, gash, gore
2 Golf Hit (the ball) into a hole: George holed a six-iron shot from the fairway [no object]: he holed out for a birdie...
- Magnificently, he holed the shot and allowed himself to smile again.
- I'm swinging the club the way I want to, the putter is okay too, it's just that I'm holing nothing.
- I wasn't at the green when he holed the putt and punched the air four or five times, but it remains one of my strongest memories, even now.
Phrases
blow a hole in
in the hole
in holes
make a hole in
need something like a hole in the head
Phrasal verbs
hole out
hole up
Derivatives
holey
/ adjective ...- Others had big hats, including some triangular ones in the shape of holey cheese.
- In front is a tatty metal-roofed house on stilts with walls of thin, holey plywood daubed in graffiti.
- You're instructed to throw away all your laddered tights, holey socks and sad-looking bras.
Origin
Old English hol (noun), holian (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch hol (noun) 'cave', (adjective) 'hollow', and German hohl 'hollow', from an Indo-European root meaning 'cover, conceal'.
Rhymes
- counterpane
- counterpart
- counterpart fund
- counterparty
- counterplot
- counterpoint
- counterpoise
- counterpose
- counterposition
- counterproductive
- counterproliferation
- counterproposal
- counterpunch
- counterpuncher
- Counter-Reformation
- counter-revolution
- counter-revolutionary
- counterrotate
- counterrotation
- counterscarp
- countershaded
- countershading
- countershaft
- countersign
- countersignature