hole
UK /həʊl/ · US /hoʊl/ noun, verb, proper noun
Also a form of whole
Forms holes holing holed holer holest
- noun 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.”
- noun 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.”
- noun (golf) A 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.
- noun (golf) The 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.”
- noun (baseball) The rear portion of the defensive team between the shortstop and the third baseman. “The shortstop ranged deep into the hole to make the stop.”
- noun (chess) A square on the board, with some positional significance, that a player does not, and cannot in the future, control with a friendly pawn.
- noun (stud poker) A card (also called a hole card) dealt face down thus unknown to all but its holder; the status in which such a card is.
- noun In the game of fives, part of the floor of the court between the step and the pepperbox.
- verb (transitive) To make holes in (an object or surface). “Shrapnel holed the ship's hull.”
- verb (transitive, by extension) To destroy. “She completely holed the argument.”
- verb (intransitive) To go into a hole.
- verb (transitive) To drive into a hole, as an animal, or a billiard ball or golf ball. “Woods holed a standard three foot putt”
- verb (transitive) To cut, dig, or bore a hole or holes in.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
box administrative segregation ad-seg block cooler hotbox lockdown pound SCU security housing unit SHU special handling unit golf hole hollow fix jam mess muddle pickle kettle of fish trap cakehole maw yap gob hole out
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English hole, hol, from Old English hol (“orifice, hollow place, cavity”), from Proto-West Germanic *hol (“hole”), from Proto-Germanic *hulą (“hollow space, cavity”), noun derivative of Proto-Germanic *hulaz (“hollow”), which is of uncertain ultimate origin. Related to hollow.
Cognate with Dutch, Faroese, and Icelandic hol (“hole”), Danish hul (“hole”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Norn hola (“hole”), Norwegian Bokmål hol (“depression, hole, cavern”), Swedish hål (“hole”), French houle (“swell of water”). Compare unrelated Finnish kolo (“hole”).
* English topographic surname for someone who lived by a depression, from Old English holh (“hole”), from Proto-West Germanic *hulwī, from Proto-Germanic *hulwiją.
* Borrowed from Norwegian Hole, a habitational surname from Old Norse hóll (“round hill, mound”).
* Shortened form of Dutch van Hole, a habitational surname from hol (“hole, depression, cavity”).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Whole. [Obs.] Chaucer.
- noun A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; an opening in or through a solid body, a fabric, etc.; a perforation; a rent; a fissure.
- noun An excavation in the ground, made by an animal to live in, or a natural cavity inhabited by an animal; hence, a low, narrow, or dark lodging or place; a mean habitation. Dryden.
- verb To cut, dig, or bore a hole or holes in; as, to hole a post for the insertion of rails or bars. Chapman.
Etymology [OE. hol, hole, AS. hol, hole, cavern, from hol, a., hollow; akin to D. hol, OHG. hol, G. hohl, Dan.huul hollow, hul hole, Sw. hål, Icel. hola; prob. from the root of AS. helan to conceal. See Hele, Hell, and cf. Hold of a ship.]
Etymology [AS. holian. See Hole, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “hole”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details