hole

[hohl] /hoʊl/
noun
1.
an opening through something; gap; aperture:
a hole in the roof; a hole in my sock.
2.
a hollow place in a solid body or mass; a cavity:
a hole in the ground.
3.
the excavated habitation of an animal; burrow.
4.
a small, dingy, or shabby place:
I couldn't live in a hole like that.
5.
a place of solitary confinement; dungeon.
6.
an embarrassing position or predicament:
to find oneself in a hole.
7.
a cove or small harbor.
8.
a fault or flaw:
They found serious holes in his reasoning.
9.
a deep, still place in a stream:
a swimming hole.
10.
Sports.
  1. a small cavity, into which a marble, ball, or the like is to be played.
  2. a score made by so playing.
11.
Golf.
  1. the circular opening in a green into which the ball is to be played.
  2. a part of a golf course from a tee to the hole corresponding to it, including fairway, rough, and hazards.
  3. the number of strokes taken to hit the ball from a tee into the hole corresponding to it.
12.
Informal. opening; slot:
The radio program was scheduled for the p.m. hole. We need an experienced person to fill a hole in our accounting department.
13.
Metalworking. (in wire drawing) one reduction of a section.
14.
Electronics. a mobile vacancy in the electronic structure of a semiconductor that acts as a positive charge carrier and has equivalent mass.
15.
Aeronautics. an air pocket that causes a plane or other aircraft to drop suddenly.
verb (used with object), holed, holing.
16.
to make a hole or holes in.
17.
to put or drive into a hole.
18.
Golf. to hit the ball into (a hole).
19.
to bore (a tunnel, passage, etc.).
verb (used without object), holed, holing.
20.
to make a hole or holes.
Verb phrases
21.
hole out, Golf. to strike the ball into a hole:
He holed out in five, one over par.
22.
hole up,
  1. to go into a hole; retire for the winter, as a hibernating animal.
  2. to hide, as from pursuers, the police, etc.:
    The police think the bank robbers are holed up in Chicago.
Idioms
23.
burn a hole in one's pocket, to urge one to spend money quickly:
His inheritance was burning a hole in his pocket.
24.
hole in the wall, a small or confining place, especially one that is dingy, shabby, or out-of-the-way:
Their first shop was a real hole in the wall.
25.
in a / the hole,
  1. in debt; in straitened circumstances:
    After Christmas I am always in the hole for at least a month.
  2. Baseball, Softball. pitching or batting with the count of balls or balls and strikes to one's disadvantage, especially batting with a count of two strikes and one ball or none.
  3. Stud Poker. being the card or one of the cards dealt face down in the first round:
    a king in the hole.
26.
make a hole in, to take a large part of:
A large bill from the dentist made a hole in her savings.
27.
pick a hole / holes in, to find a fault or flaw in:
As soon as I presented my argument, he began to pick holes in it.
Also, poke a hole/holesin.
Origin
before 900; Middle English; Old English hol hole, cave, orig. neuter of hol (adj.) hollow; cognate with German hohl hollow
Related forms
holeless, adjective
holey, adjective
Can be confused
hole, whole (see synonym study at the current entry; see synonym study at whole)
holey, holy, wholly.
Synonyms
1, 2. pit, hollow, concavity. Hole, cavity, excavation refer to a hollow place in anything. Hole is the common word for this idea: a hole in turf. Cavity is a more formal or scientific term for a hollow within the body or in a substance, whether with or without a passage outward: a cavity in a tooth; the cranial cavity. An excavation is an extended hole made by digging out or removing material: an excavation before the construction of a building. 3. den, cave; lair, retreat. 4. hovel, shack.
British Dictionary definitions for hole up

hole up

verb (intransitive, adverb)
1.
(of an animal) to hibernate, esp in a cave
2.
(informal) to hide or remain secluded

hole

/həʊl/
noun
1.
an area hollowed out in a solid
2.
an opening made in or through something
3.
an animal's hiding place or burrow
4.
(informal) an unattractive place, such as a town or a dwelling
5.
(informal) a cell or dungeon
6.
(US, informal) a small anchorage
7.
a fault (esp in the phrase pick holes in)
8.
(slang) a difficult and embarrassing situation
9.
the cavity in various games into which the ball must be thrust
10.
(on a golf course)
  1. the cup on each of the greens
  2. each of the divisions of a course (usually 18) represented by the distance between the tee and a green
  3. the score made in striking the ball from the tee into the hole
11.
(physics)
  1. a vacancy in a nearly full band of quantum states of electrons in a semiconductor or an insulator. Under the action of an electric field holes behave as carriers of positive charge
  2. (as modifier): hole current
  3. a vacancy in the nearly full continuum of quantum states of negative energy of fermions. A hole appears as the antiparticle of the fermion
12.
in holes, so worn as to be full of holes: his socks were in holes
13.
(mainly US) in the hole
  1. in debt
  2. (of a card, the hole card, in stud poker) dealt face down in the first round
14.
make a hole in, to consume or use a great amount of (food, drink, money, etc): to make a hole in a bottle of brandy
verb
15.
to make a hole or holes in (something)
16.
(golf) when intr, often foll by out. to hit (the ball) into the hole
Word Origin
Old English hol; related to Gothic hulundi, German Höhle, Old Norse hylr pool, Latin caulis hollow stem; see hollow
Word Origin and History for hole up

hole

n.

Old English hol "orifice, hollow place, cave, perforation," from Proto-Germanic *hul (cf. Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Old High German hol, Middle Dutch hool, Old Norse holr, German hohl "hollow," Gothic us-hulon "to hollow out"), from PIE root *kel- (see cell).

As a contemptuous word for "small dingy lodging or abode" it is attested from 1610s. Meaning "a fix, scrape, mess" is from 1760. Obscene slang use for "vulva" is implied from mid-14c. Hole in the wall "small and unpretentious place" is from 1822; to hole up first recorded 1875. To need (something) like a hole in the head, applied to something useless or detrimental, first recorded 1944 in entertainment publications, probably a translation of a Yiddish expression, cf. ich darf es vi a loch in kop.

v.

"to make a hole," Old English holian "to hollow out, scoop out" (see hole (n.)). Related: Holed; holing.

hole up in Science
hole
  (hōl)   
A gap, usually the valence band of an insulator or semiconductor, that would normally be filled with one electron. If an electron accelerated by a voltage moves into a gap, it leaves a gap behind it, and in this way the hole itself appears to move through the substance. Even though holes are in fact the absence of a negatively charged particle (an electron), they can be treated theoretically as positively charged particles, whose motion gives rise to electric current.
Slang definitions & phrases for hole up

hole up

verb phrase
  1. To hide; take refuge; hide out: Long Island, where he might hole up for a day or two
  2. To stay for a time; lodge; crash: thinking about holing up for the night (1875+)

hole

noun
  1. Any nasty or unpleasant place; dump, joint: The restaurant turned out to be a loathsome little hole (1616+)
  2. The vulva or anus (1340+)
Related Terms

ace in the hole, big hole, brown, bunghole, cornhole, in a hole, in the hole, the nineteenth hole, not know one's ass from one's elbow, rathole


Idioms and Phrases with hole up

hole up

Take refuge or shelter, hide, as in I spent most of the cruise holed up in my cabin. This usage alludes to animals hibernating in winter or hiding from attack in caves or holes. [ Late 1800s ]

hole

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