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hole definition

hole (hōl)

noun

  1. a hollow or hollowed-out place; cavity; specif.,
    1. an excavation or pit
    2. ☆ a small bay or inlet; cove: often in place names
    3. a pool or deep, relatively wide place in a stream a swimming hole
    4. an animal's burrow or lair; den
  2. a small, dingy, squalid place; any dirty, badly lighted room, house, etc.
    1. an opening in or through anything; break; gap a hole in the wall
    2. a tear or rent, or a place where fabric is worn away, as in a garment
  4. a flaw; fault; blemish; defect holes in an argument
  5. Informal an embarrassing situation or position; predicament
  6. Golf
    1. a small, cylindrical cup sunk into a green, into which a ball is to be hit
    2. any of the distinct sections of a course, including the tee, the fairway, and the green played the fifth hole in par
  7. Physics, Electronics a vacancy in a semiconductor, crystal, etc. left by the loss or absence of an electron: in some semiconductors it acts as a carrier of a positive electric charge

Etymology: ME < OE hol, orig. neut. of adj. holh, hollow, akin to Ger hohl < IE base *kaul-, *kul-, hollow, hollow stalk > L caulis, Gr kaulos, stalk

transitive verb holed, holing hol′·ing

  1. to make a hole or holes in
  2. to put, hit, or drive into a hole
  3. to create by making a hole to hole a tunnel through a mountain
hole Idioms

burn a hole in someone's pocket

to make someone eager to spend it: said of money

hole high

Golf at a spot on or near the green that is as far as the hole is from where the ball was hit

hole in one

Golf the act of getting the ball into the hole on the shot from the tee

hole out

Golf to hit the ball into the hole

hole up

Informal
  1. to hibernate, usually in a hole
  2. to shut oneself in
  3. to hide out

in the hole

☆
  1. Informal financially embarrassed or behind fifty dollars in the hole
  2. dealt face down: said of a card or cards in stud poker

make a hole in

to use up a sizable amount of

pick holes in

to pick out errors or flaws in

the hole

  1. Informal solitary confinement; also, a cell used for solitary confinement
  2. ☆ Baseball the area of the infield between the third baseman and the shortstop or between the second baseman and the first baseman

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Alternate definitions:

idioms hole idiom

hole Synonyms

hole

n.

  1. A perforation

    notch, puncture, slot, eyelet, keyhole, porthole, buttonhole, peephole, loophole, embrasure, crenel, air hole, stop, mousehole, window, crack, rent, split, tear, cleft, opening, fissure, gap, gash, rift, rupture, fracture, break, leak, nostril, oeil-de-boeuf (French), aperture, space, chasm, breach, slit, nick, cut, chink, scission, vent, incision, orifice, scissure, spiracle, leak, interstice, vent hole, scupper, foramen, eye, rime, acupuncture; see also sense 2.

  2. A cavity

    crater, mouth, gorge, throat, gullet, orifice, aperture, cranny, foramen, manhole, dent, opening, depression, indentation, impression, corner, shell hole, pockmark, swimming hole, pocket, dimple, dip, void, lacuna, vacuum, drop, gulf, depth, pit, abyss, hollow, basin, chasm, vent, crevasse, trench, foxhole, mine, concavity, shaft, chamber, defile, scoop, valley, ravine, burrow, rift, fossa, cell, cistern, niche, alveolus, spider hole*; see also sense 1.

  3. A cave

    burrow, den, lair, grotto, cavern, cove, tunnel, excavation, mound, passage, refuge, retreat, furrow, dugout, honeycomb, warren, covert, shelter; see also sense 2.

  4. *Serious difficulty

    impasse, tangle, mess; see crisis, difficulty 1, emergency.

  5. In golf, a depression made for the ball

    drop, cup, pocket, first to 18th hole, pot*, mocking cup*.

hole is the general word for an open space in a thing and may suggest a depression in a surface or an opening from surface to surface a hole in the ground, a hole in a sock; hollow basically suggests an empty space within a solid body, whether or not it extends to the surface, but it may also be applied to a depressed place in a surface a wooded hollow; cavity is generally equivalent to hole or hollow and also has special application in formal and scientific usage the thoracic cavity; an excavation is a hollow made in or through ground by digging the excavations at Pompeii

burn a hole in one's pocket

entice, lure, attract; see tempt.

in the hole*

broke, without money, in debt; see poor 1.

make a hole in

use up, consume, expend; see spend 1.

pick holes in

criticize, disprove, pick out errors in; see censure.


Webster's New World Roget's A-Z Thesaurus Copyright © 1999 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

hole Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • drill: Reg drilled the pilot hole for the blade first.

Adjective modifier

  • black: Monk is an equally ominous figure, seeming to absorb light like a black hole in space.

Modifies a noun

  • golf: Golf The world class 18 hole golf courses in Méribel, just 5 minutes drive from the chalet.

Noun used with modifier

  • watering: Evening dinner offsite at various ' watering holes ' Entertainment evening - 10 pin bowling or cinema followed by course dinner.
hole usage examples (more)

The word usage examples above have been gathered from various sources to reflect current and historical usage. They do not represent the opinions of YourDictionary.com.

hole quotes

It is not enough to be pause, to be hole to be void, to be silent to be semicolon, to be semicolony; 150

-Brathwaite

It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window.

-Chandler, Raymond

   An ineffectual attempt to direct an uncontrollable sphere into an inaccessible hole with instruments ill- adapted for the purpose.

-Churchill, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer

hole quotes (more)

Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2005 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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MLA Style

"hole." Webster's New World College Dictionary. 2009

  • Your Dictionary. 4 July 2009
  • <www.yourdictionary.com/hole>

APA Style

hole. (2009). In Webster's New World College Dictionary

  • Retrieved July 4th, 2009, from www.yourdictionary.com/hole

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