hole

hole [hōl]

n.

[ME < OE hol, orig. neut. of adj. holh, hollow, akin to Ger hohl < IE base * kaul-, *kul-, hollow, hollow stalk > L caulis, Gr kaulos, stalk]

1. a hollow or hollowed-out place; cavity; specif.,

a) an excavation or pit

☆ b) a small bay or inlet; cove: often in place names

c) a pool or deep, relatively wide place in a stream [a swimming hole]

d) an animal's burrow or lair; den

2. a small, dingy, squalid place; any dirty, badly lighted room, house, etc.

3.

a) an opening in or through anything; break; gap [a hole in the wall]

b) a tear or rent, or a place where fabric is worn away, as in a garment

4. a flaw; fault; blemish; defect [holes in an argument]

5. Informal an embarrassing situation or position; predicament

6. Golf

a) a small, cylindrical cup sunk into a green, into which a ball is to be hit

b) any of the distinct sections of a course, including the tee, the fairway, and the green [played the fifth hole in par]

7. Physics, ElectronicsPhysics Electronics a vacancy in a semiconductor, crystal, etc. left by the loss or absence of an electron: in some semiconductors it acts as a carrier of a positive electric charge

vt.

holed, holing

1. to make a hole or holes in

2. to put, hit, or drive into a hole

3. to create by making a hole [to hole a tunnel through a mountain]

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burn a hole in someone's pocket

to make someone eager to spend it: said of money

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hole high

Golf at a spot on or near the green that is as far as the hole is from where the ball was hit

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hole in one

Golf the act of getting the ball into the hole on the shot from the tee

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hole out

Golf to hit the ball into the hole

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hole up Informal

1. to hibernate, usually in a hole

2. to shut oneself in

3. to hide out

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☆ in the hole

1. Informal financially embarrassed or behind [fifty dollars in the hole]

2. dealt face down: said of a card or cards in stud poker

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make a hole in

to use up a sizable amount of

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pick holes in

to pick out errors or flaws in

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the hole

1. Informal SOLITARY CONFINEMENT; also, a cell used for solitary confinement

☆ 2. Baseball the area of the infield between the third baseman and the shortstop or between the second baseman and the first baseman

SYN.- HOLE is the general word for an open space in a thing and may suggest a depression in a surface or an opening from surface to surface [a hole in the ground, a hole in a sock ]; HOLLOW basically suggests an empty space within a solid body, whether or not it extends to the surface, but it may also be applied to a depressed place in a surface [a wooded hollow]; CAVITY, the Latin-derived equivalent of HOLLOW, has special application in formal and scientific usage [the thoracic cavity]; an EXCAVATION is a hollow made in or through ground by digging [the excavations at Pompeii ]