smokehole

plural smokeholes

1. A hole in the top of a building, especially a basic building or structure such as a tipi or yurt, through which smoke can exit.

   Drifting sparks floated up and out of the smokehole.

   1996, George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

   5 more examples

   The ovens they now build are well vaulted, with vent-holes on the sides, just underneath the roof, and a chimney closed at top, having a smoke-hole on each side. Through these smoke-holes no spark can get, so as to set fire to the straw spread about it, and the whole kiln is thus preserved from taking fire, owing to the chimney’s being closed at top.

   1788, John Trusler, “Travels through Siberia and Tartary”, in The Habitable World Described, volume 3, London, page 181

   Seeing the serious turn matters were likely to take, he resolved not to await the trial, but flew up the smoke-hole, and when at the top he cried out that things would have gone very differently with them had it not been for the arrival of their guests.

   1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 393

   Wind and rain fought it out on Cladich brae, and when it was not the wind that came bold through the smoke-hole in the roof, ’twas the rain, a beady slant that hissed on the peats like roasting herrings.

   1896, Neil Munro, “Black Murdo”, in The Lost Pibroch, and Other Sheiling Stories, Edinburgh: W. Blackwood, page 129

   A splash of white on the floor came from the high moon, which was peering down through the smoke-hole in the roof.

   1937, J. R. R. Tolkien, chapter 7, in The Hobbit, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, published 2012

   Each of the large houses was the home of several families. The door and the smoke-hole were common to all, but each family had its own fire with its own things round it.

   1941, Emily Carr, “Ucluelet”, in Klee Wyck, Oxford University Press