holing

Variant of hole

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 © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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