holing

Pluralholings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of hole.

   The submerged reef was holing vessels all along that stretch of coast.

   He is holing the ball from twenty feet out on the final green.

   Note

   The -ing form drops the silent e of hole. It carries every use of the verb. It is transitive when something is pierced or sunk, as when a reef holes a hull or a golfer holes a putt, and intransitive when an animal goes into a hole. Its gerund can head a noun phrase, but the coal-cutting term is a separate word, built on the noun hole rather than on this verb.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The undercutting of a coal seam at its base, done to bring down the mass of coal above.

   The holing was cut deep enough to drop the entire upper bench of coal.

   Hand holing gave way to machine cutters in most modern collieries.

   Similarundercutting, undercut

   Note

   A collier's term built directly on the noun hole, "a hollow," rather than on the verb. Holing is the hollow work cut beneath the seam. Once the base is undercut, the upper mass has nothing left to rest on and comes down under its own weight. It is a countable noun with an ordinary plural, holings, and belongs to the working vocabulary of the mine rather than to general use.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2