holt

plural holts · alternative obsolete hoult

1. A small piece of woodland or a woody hill; a copse.

   As over Holt and Heath, as thorough Frith and Fell;

   1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 11 p. 174

   2 more examples

   [the gale] 'Twould blow like this through holt and hanger.

   1896, A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, XXXI, line 5

   Once, at our cottage at Dodford, a tiny thatched village under a steep holt full of foxgloves...

   1977, Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts

2. The lair of an animal, especially of an otter.

   1 more example

   Where the river begins to slow, at the beginning of the pool, its left bank is bound by the open roots of oak, ash, alder, and sycamore. To hunted otters these trees offered holding as secure as any in the country of the Two Rivers. Harper, the aged hound—he was fourteen years old—knew every holt in the riverside trees of Knackershill Copse, and although he had marked at all of them, only once had he cracked the rib of an otter found in the pool.

   1927, Henry William Williamson, Tarka the Otter, Chapter 19

plural Holts

1. countableuncountableA surname An English and north-west European topographic surname for someone who lived by a small wood.
2. A placename
   1. countableuncountableA village and civil parish in Dorset, England, previously in East Dorset district (OS grid ref SU0203).
   2. countableuncountableA suburb of the town of Hook, Hart district, Hampshire (OS grid ref SU7354).
   3. countableuncountableA market town and civil parish with a town council in North Norfolk district, Norfolk, England (OS grid ref TG0738).
   4. countableuncountableA village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England (OS grid ref ST8662).
   5. countableuncountableA village and civil parish in Malvern Hills district, Worcestershire, England (OS grid ref SO8262).
   6. countableuncountableA village and community in Wrexham borough county borough, Wales, on the River Dee, the border with England (OS grid SJ4153).
   7. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community and census-designated place in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama.
   8. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in San Joaquin County, California.
   9. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Okaloosa County, Florida.
   10. countableuncountableA township in Taylor County, Iowa.
   11. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Breckinridge County, Kentucky.
   12. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.
   13. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community and census-designated place in Ingham County, Michigan.
   14. countableuncountableA township in Fillmore County, Minnesota.
   15. countableuncountableA minor city in Marshall County, Minnesota.
   16. countableuncountableA township in Marshall County, Minnesota.
   17. countableuncountableA minor city in Clay County and Clinton County, Missouri.
   18. countableuncountableA township in Gage County, Nebraska.
   19. countableuncountableA former township in Adams County, North Dakota, now part of Central Adams, North Dakota.
   20. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Ohio.
   21. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in the town of Franzen, Marathon County, Wisconsin.
   22. countableuncountableA village in East Gwillimbury, Regional Municipality of York, Ontario, Canada.
   23. countableuncountableA municipality in Schleswig-Flensburg district, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
   24. countableuncountableA hamlet in Overijssel, Netherlands; see Dutch Holt.
   25. countableuncountableA village in Tvedestrand municipality, Agder, Norway.
   26. countableuncountableA village in Letea Veche, Bacău County, Romania.
   27. countableuncountableA suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, named after PM Harold Holt.
   28. abbreviationcountableellipsisuncountableEllipsis of Holt County.