# hole

Pronunciation: say "HOHL" US /hoʊl/, UK /həʊl/, AUS /hɐʉl/

## Noun

1. An opening passing completely through a solid body, fabric, or similar material; a perforation.
   - Simple: An opening that goes all the way through something.
   - _The moths left several holes in the wool blanket._
   - _Drill a hole through the plank to fit the bolt._
2. A hollow place or cavity in a surface, such as a pit, dent, or depression.
   - Simple: A hollow or dug-out space in a surface, like a pit or dent.
   - _Workers dug a large hole for the building's foundation._
   - _Rainwater collected in a shallow hole near the path._
3. In golf, a single section of play, from the tee to the cup on its green, that a player completes in as few strokes as possible.
   - Simple: In golf, one part of the course that you play from the start until the ball drops in.
   - _He birdied the par-three hole near the lake._
   - _The match was decided on the final hole._
4. A weakness or flaw, especially in an argument, plan, theory, or computer system's security.
   - Simple: A weak point or mistake in an idea, plan, or computer system that makes it fail or open to attack.
   - _Critics quickly pointed out the holes in the proposed budget._
   - _Her theory had one major hole that nobody could explain._
5. A state of difficulty or trouble, especially financial debt that is hard to escape.
   - Simple: A bad situation, especially being in debt or owing a lot of money.
   - _By the end of the year, rising costs had put the family bakery in a hole it would take a decade to climb out of._
   - _She borrowed more just to climb out of the hole she was already in._
6. A gap left by the absence of someone or something, for example in a schedule, on a team, or in a person's life.
   - Simple: An empty space left when someone or something is missing, for example in a plan, a team, or your life.
   - _The captain's retirement leaves a big hole in the team's defense._
   - _After her kids moved out, she took up painting to fill the hole in her days._
8. In golf, the standard-size cup sunk into the green that players aim to hit the ball into, with eighteen on a full course.
   - Simple: In golf, the small cup in the ground that players try to hit the ball into.
   - _He needed three putts to drop the ball into the hole._
   - _The eighteenth hole was cut near the edge of the green._
9. A dingy, unpleasant, or run-down place that nobody would want to live in or visit. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A dirty, unpleasant place where someone lives or stays.
   - _He swore he'd move out of that hole the moment he could afford to._
   - _The bar downtown is a grimy hole, but the regulars love it._
11. Solitary confinement; a high-security prison cell where an inmate is held alone, often as punishment. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A special prison cell where a prisoner is kept alone as punishment.
   - _After the riot, several inmates were sent to the hole for a month._
   - _He dreaded the hole more than any other punishment in the prison._
12. A coarse slang word for an opening in the body, in particular the anus. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A rude word for an opening in the body, especially the anus.
   - _He told the bully exactly where he could shove his complaints, right up his hole._
   - _After six hours in the saddle, his hole was as sore as his back._
14. In semiconductors, a missing electron in an otherwise filled energy band that behaves like a positively charged particle.
   - Simple: An empty spot in a material where an electron is missing, acting like a positive charge.
   - _In a p-type semiconductor, holes are the majority charge carriers._
   - _Each hole drifts toward the negative terminal under an applied field._
15. In baseball, the area of the infield between the shortstop and the third baseman.
   - Simple: In baseball, the gap on the field between the shortstop and the third baseman.
   - _She lined a single through the hole into left field._
   - _The shortstop made a diving stop deep in the hole._
16. In stud poker, a card dealt face down and known only to the player holding it.
   - Simple: In card games, a card dealt face down so only its holder can see it.
   - _In seven-card stud, your first two cards are dealt face down, so you start with two cards in the hole._
   - _Her face-up cards looked weak, but with a pair of aces in the hole she felt quietly confident._
17. A derogatory slang word for a person's mouth, used especially in telling someone to be quiet. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A rude slang word for a person's mouth.
   - _Nobody asked for your opinion, so shut your hole and let me finish._
   - _She told him to shut his hole before he made things worse._
18. A mountain valley, especially one ringed by higher ground; chiefly in historical American usage. *(Canada, US)*
   - Simple: A small valley shut in by mountains.
   - _Mountain men gathered each summer in the hole to trade furs._
   - _The wagon train rested a week in a grassy hole below the pass._
19. A vulgar term for the vagina. *(dialectal, Ireland, Scotland)*
   - Simple: A rude word for the vagina.
   - _Her mother warned her, in the crudest terms, that she would end up pregnant if she let any lad near her hole._
   - _Struggling with her first tampon, she complained loudly to her sister that the thing would not go up her hole._
21. In chess, a square a player cannot control with a pawn now or in the future, often exploited as an outpost by the opponent.
   - Simple: In chess, a square that one side can never guard with a pawn, leaving it weak.
   - _White's knight dominated the hole on e6 for the rest of the game._
   - _Advancing the f-pawn left a glaring hole on the kingside._
22. A passing loop; a siding on a single-track line where trains traveling in opposite directions can pass each other. *(slang)*
   - Simple: On a single-track railway, a short side track where one train waits so another can pass.
   - _The dispatcher held the local in the hole until the priority train cleared._
   - _The dispatcher sent the eastbound freight into the hole so the westbound passenger train could pass on the single main line._
23. In graph theory, a chordless cycle: a cycle of four or more vertices in which no two non-adjacent vertices are joined by an edge.
   - Simple: In math, a loop of four or more points in a network with no shortcut links across it.
   - _A graph with no hole is called chordal, since every cycle of four or more vertices in it has a chord._
   - _A perfect graph contains no odd hole and no odd antihole._
24. In the game of fives, the part of the court floor between the step and the pepperbox.
   - Simple: In a court game called fives, one part of the floor, next to the step.

## Verb

7. To create one or more holes in an object or surface, as by piercing or puncturing it.
   - Simple: To make a hole or holes in something.
   - _A sudden hailstorm holed the plastic roof of the greenhouse in a dozen places._
   - _Repeated blows from the pick began to hole the concrete._
10. To go into a hole, as an animal seeking shelter or refuge.
   - Simple: To move or hide inside a hole.
   - _As the weather turns cold, chipmunks hole up in their underground burrows and sleep for long stretches._
   - _Hearing a hawk overhead, the ground squirrel dashed across the field and holed up in its burrow until the danger passed._
13. To drive something into a hole, such as a billiard or golf ball, or an animal into its burrow.
   - Simple: To hit or drive a ball into a hole, or chase an animal into one.
   - _She holed a long birdie putt on the final green._
   - _He managed to hole the black ball and clinch the frame._
20. To ruin or destroy something, especially by inflicting serious damage on it.
   - Simple: To break or wreck something so badly that it is ruined.
   - _Political commentators agreed that the leaked emails had holed the mayor's reelection campaign below the waterline._
   - _News that auditors had uncovered missing funds was enough to hole the charity's reputation below the waterline, and donations quickly dried up._

## Origin

Inherited from Middle English hole, from Old English hol ("orifice, hollow place, cavity"), going back through Proto-West Germanic *hol to Proto-Germanic *hulą ("hollow space"), a noun formed from *hulaz ("hollow"), which is of uncertain ultimate origin. It is related to hollow.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/hole (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).