Search Results
Advanced Search
List Builder
Random Word

hole

A hole isn't just a hollow space dug out of the ground or punched out of something. When you're talking casually with friends, you can also call a place that's small or dumpy a hole, like a rundown town or a really tiny apartment.

The word hole comes from the Old English hol meaning "cave" which in prehistoric times wasn't just a dark space to hide, it was a home. The word hole is used in many contexts from a rabbit hole where rabbits live to "a hole in one" — the golf term. And, if you're feeling sick or depressed, you can hole up in your room — hiding away from the world, watching TV for hours.

PRIMARY MEANINGS OF: hole

1	n v	an opening into or through something make holes in
2	n v	one playing period (from tee to green) on a golf course hit the ball into the hole
3	n	a fault
4	n	informal terms for a difficult situation
5	n	informal terms for the mouth

FULL DEFINITIONS OF: hole

n an opening into or through something

Types:: show 12 types...; hide 12 types...; aperture
a natural opening in something; bolt-hole
a hole through which an animal may bolt when pursued into its burrow or den; bullet hole
a hole made by a bullet passing through it; cranny
a small opening or crevice (especially in a rock face or wall); leak
an accidental hole that allows something (fluid or light etc.) to enter or escape; ozone hole
an area of the ozone layer (near the poles) that is seasonally depleted of ozone; perforation
a hole made in something; rathole
a hole (as in the wall of a building) made by rats; knothole
a hole in a board where a knot came out; pupil
the contractile aperture in the center of the iris of the eye; resembles a large black dot; micropyle
minute opening in the wall of an ovule through which the pollen tube enters; pore, stoma, stomate
a minute epidermal pore in a leaf or stem through which gases and water vapor can pass

Type of:: gap, opening
an open or empty space in or between things

n an opening deliberately made in or through something

Types:: show 32 types...; hide 32 types...; air hole
a hole that allows the passage of air; armhole
a hole through which you put your arm and where a sleeve can be attached; bunghole
a hole in a barrel or cask; used to fill or empty it; button hole, buttonhole
a hole through which buttons are pushed; countersink
a hole (usually in wood) with the top part enlarged so that a screw or bolt will fit into it and lie below the surface; cup
the hole (or metal container in the hole) on a golf green; ear hole
a hole (as in a helmet) for sound to reach the ears; eye
a small hole or loop (as in a needle); eyehole, eyelet
a small hole (usually round and finished around the edges) in cloth or leather for the passage of a cord or hook or bar; finger hole
a hole for inserting a finger; finger hole
one of a series of holes in a woodwind instrument; pitch changes when a finger covers it; hawse, hawsehole, hawsepipe
the hole that an anchor rope passes through; keyhole
the hole where a key is inserted; loophole
a small hole in a fortified wall; for observation or discharging weapons; lubber's hole
hole in a platform on a mast through which a sailor can climb without going out on the shrouds; manhole
a hole (usually with a flush cover) through which a person can gain access to an underground structure; mortice, mortise
a square hole made to receive a tenon and so to form a joint; mouth hole
a hole (as in a ski mask) for the mouth; nail hole
a hole left after a nail is removed; eyehole, peephole, spyhole
a hole (in a door or an oven etc) through which you can peep; perforation
a line of small holes for tearing at a particular place; plughole
a hole into which a plug fits (especially a hole where water drains away); post hole, posthole
a hole dug in the ground to hold a fence post; puncture
a small hole made by a sharp object; sound hole
a hole in a soundboard (as of a violin) designed to resonate with the tones; thumbhole
the hole in a woodwind that is closed and opened with the thumb; blowhole, vent, vent-hole, venthole
a hole for the escape of gas or air; judas
a one-way peephole in a door; pinhole
a small puncture that might have been made by a pin; pinprick
small puncture (as if made by a pin); smoke hole
a vent (as in a roof) for smoke to escape; thumbhole
a finger hole made to fit the thumb (as in a bowling ball)

Type of:: opening
a vacant or unobstructed space that is man-made

n a depression hollowed out of solid matter

Synonyms:: hollow

Types:: show 17 types...; hide 17 types...; burrow, tunnel
a hole made by an animal, usually for shelter; gopher hole
a hole in the ground made by gophers; kettle, kettle hole
(geology) a hollow (typically filled by a lake) that results from the melting of a mass of ice trapped in glacial deposits; cavity, pit
a sizeable hole (usually in the ground); chuckhole, pothole
a pit or hole produced by wear or weathering (especially in a road surface); rabbit burrow, rabbit hole
a hole in the ground as a nest made by wild rabbits; wormhole
hole made by a burrowing worm; trou-de-loup
a sloping pit with a stake in the middle used as an obstacle to the enemy; barbecue pit
a pit where wood or charcoal is burned to make a bed of hot coals suitable for barbecuing meat; borrow pit
a pit created to provide earth that can be used as fill at another site; divot
(golf) the cavity left when a piece of turf is cut from the ground by the club head in making a stroke; fire pit
a pit whose floor is incandescent lava; quicksand
a pit filled with loose wet sand into which objects are sucked down; sandpit
a large pit in sandy ground from which sand is dug; sawpit
a pit over which lumber is positioned to be sawed by two men with a long two-handed saw; tar pit
a natural accumulation of bitumens at the surface of the earth; often acts as a trap for animals whose bones are thus preserved; rabbit warren, warren
a series of connected underground tunnels occupied by rabbits

Type of:: depression, natural depression
a sunken or depressed geological formation

n an unoccupied space

Types:: pore
any tiny hole admitting passage of a liquid (fluid or gas)

Type of:: space
an empty area (usually bounded in some way between things)

v make holes in

Type of:: core out, hollow, hollow out
remove the interior of

n one playing period (from tee to green) on a golf course

“he played 18 holes”

Synonyms:: golf hole

Types:: dogleg
a golf hole with a sharp angle in the fairway

Type of:: period of play, play, playing period
(in games or plays or other performances) the time during which play proceeds

v hit the ball into the hole

Synonyms:: hole out

Type of:: hit
cause to move by striking

n a fault

“he shot holes in my argument”

Type of:: defect, fault, flaw
an imperfection in an object or machine

n informal terms for a difficult situation

Synonyms:: fix, jam, kettle of fish, mess, muddle, pickle

Types:: dog's breakfast, dog's dinner
a poor job; a mess

Type of:: difficulty
a condition or state of affairs almost beyond one's ability to deal with and requiring great effort to bear or overcome

n informal terms for the mouth

Synonyms:: cakehole, gob, maw, trap, yap

Type of:: mouth, oral cavity, oral fissure, rima oris
the opening through which food is taken in and vocalizations emerge

Launch

WORD FAMILY

USAGE EXAMPLES