hole

plural holes

1. A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; a dent; a depression; a fissure.

   I made a blind hole in the wall for a peg.  I dug a hole and planted a tree in it.

   2 more examples

   To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in't, are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully disaster the cheeks.

   c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii]

   Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill.

   1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC

2. An opening that goes all the way through a solid body, a fabric, etc.; a perforation; a rent.

   There’s a hole in my shoe.  Her stocking has a hole in it.

   2 more examples

   The priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Kings 12:9

   […]her palfrey’s footfall shot Light horrors thro’ her pulses: the blind walls Were full of chinks and holes; and overhead Fantastic gables, crowding, stared:[…]

   1840, Alfred Tennyson, Godiva

3. In games.
   1. golfA subsurface standard-size hole, also called cup, hitting the ball into which is the object of play. Each hole, of which there are usually eighteen as the standard on a full course, is located on a prepared surface, called the green, of a particular type grass.
   2. golfThe part of a game in which a player attempts to hit the ball into one of the holes.

      I played 18 holes yesterday.  The second hole today cost me three strokes over par.

   3. ball gamesThe rear portion of the defensive team between the shortstop and the third baseman.

      The shortstop ranged deep into the hole to make the stop.

   4. board gamesA square on the board, with some positional significance, that a player does not, and cannot in the future, control with a friendly pawn.
   5. stud pokerheadingA card (also called a hole card) dealt face down thus unknown to all but its holder; the status in which such a card is.
   6. headingIn the game of fives, part of the floor of the court between the step and the pepperbox.
4. slangarchaeologyAn excavation pit or trench.
5. figurativelyA weakness; a flaw or ambiguity.

   I have found a hole in your argument.

   1 more example

   But between the drinks and subtle things / The holes in my apologies, you know / I’m trying hard to take it back

   2011, Fun, “We Are Young”

6. natural sciencesIn semiconductors, a lack of an electron in an occupied band behaving like a positively charged particle.
7. computingA security vulnerability in software which can be taken advantage of by an exploit.
8. Any bodily orifice.
   1. derogatoryslangvulgarA person's mouth.

      Just shut your hole!

   2. slangvulgarThe anus.
   3. slangvulgarThe vagina.
9. derogatoryincel slangA woman.
10. informalwith definite articleSolitary confinement, a high-security prison cell often used as punishment.

    Disciplinary actions can range from a mere write up to serious time in the hole.

    2011, Ahmariah Jackson, IAtomic Seven, Locked Up but Not Locked Down

    1 more example

    In late December a Washington State prisoner was involved in a scuffle with a guard who was trying to take him into the hole.

    1988 April 2, Ed Mead, “AIDS hysteria sweeps prison guards' union”, in Gay Community News, page 9

    Synonyms: box, administrative segregation, ad-seg, block, box, cooler, hotbox, lockdown

11. slangAn undesirable place to live or visit.

    His apartment is a hole!

    1 more example

    I have often heard people say, "One can't live upon a view," and I have heard some of the most beautiful places called "awful holes," simply because of the monotonous lives led in them.

    1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 109

12. figurativelyDifficulty, in particular, debt.

    If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

    1 more example

    "Don't you see the hole it has put me into? […] Of course it was too late to have any alteration printed on the first night and now Miss Roscastle is the draw of the piece.

    1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC

13. graph theoryA chordless cycle in a graph.
14. slangrail transportA passing loop; a siding provided for trains traveling in opposite directions on a single-track line to pass each other.

    We’re supposed to take the hole at Cronk and wait for the Limited to pass.

15. CanadaUShistoricalA mountain valley.

    Jackson Hole

present singular third person holes · participle present holing · participle past holed · past holed

1. transitiveTo make holes in (an object or surface).

   Shrapnel holed the ship's hull.

2. broadlytransitiveTo destroy.

   She completely holed the argument.

3. intransitiveTo go into a hole.

   Good master Picklock, with your worming brain, And wriggling engine-head of maintenance, Which I shall see you hole with very shortly! A fine round head, when those two lugs are off, To trundle through a pillory!

   1631, Ben Jonson, The Staple of News, act IV, scene ii

4. transitiveTo drive into a hole, as an animal, or a billiard ball or golf ball.

   Woods holed a standard three foot putt

   1 more example

   If the player holes the red ball, he scores three, and upon holing his adversary's ball, he gains two; and thus it frequently happens, that seven are got upon a single stroke, by caramboling and holing both balls.

   1799, Sporting Magazine, volume 13, page 49

5. transitiveTo cut, dig, or bore a hole or holes in.

   to hole a post for the insertion of rails or bars

comparative holer · comparative more hole · superlative holest · superlative most hole

1. obsoleteObsolete spelling of whole.

   Such was the arrangement of the alphabet over the hole North.

   1843, Sir George Webbe Dasent (translator), A grammar of the Icelandic or Old Norse tongue (originally by Rasmus Christian Rask)

2. misspellingMisspelling of whole.

plural Holes

1. A surname.