English Explanatory Dictionary

hole

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; a dent; a depression; a fissure.
  2. An opening that goes all the way through a solid body, a fabric, etc.; a perforation; a rent.
  3. In games.
  4. 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.
  5. The part of a game in which a player attempts to hit the ball into one of the holes.
  6. The rear portion of the defensive team between the shortstop and the third baseman.
  7. A square on the board, with some positional significance, that a player does not, and cannot in the future, control with a friendly pawn.
  8. 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.
  9. In the game of fives, part of the floor of the court between the step and the pepperbox.
  10. An excavation pit or trench.
  11. A weakness; a flaw or ambiguity.
  12. In semiconductors, a lack of an electron in an occupied band behaving like a positively charged particle.
verb
  1. To make holes in (an object or surface).
  2. To destroy.
  3. To go into a hole.
  4. To drive into a hole, as an animal, or a billiard ball or golf ball.
  5. To cut, dig, or bore a hole or holes in.
adj
  1. Obsolete spelling of whole.
  2. Misspelling of whole.
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

/həʊl/ [hɔʊɫ] /hɒl/ /hɐʉl/ en-au-hole.ogg /hoʊl/ [hoɫ] en-us-hole.ogg [hoːɫ] /hol/

Word forms

hole holes holing holed holer more hole holest most hole

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *hulaz Proto-Germanic *hulą Proto-West Germanic *hol Old English hol Middle English hole English hole 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”).

Synonyms

hole box administrative segregation ad-seg block cooler hotbox lockdown pound SCU security housing unit SHU special handling unit

Derived words

ace in the hole a-hole air hole airhole analog hole analogue hole antihole armhole arm hole arrow-hole arsehole ash-hole ass hole asshole Aubrey hole back hole batty hole beam hole beanhole bean hole Beck Hole bench-hole black-hole blackhole black hole blasthole bleed hole blind hole block hole blockhole blow a hole through blowhole blue hole bolthole bolt-hole bonus hole bootyhole borehole boy hole BTZ black hole bullet hole bullethole bumhole bum hole bung-hole burn a hole in one's pocket burn a hole in someone's pocket burr hole butthole button hole button-hole buttonhole cakehole c-hole chuckhole clearance hole cloud hole coal hole cockhole cookie hole

Translations

Finnish: kolo Finnish: reikä Italian: buca Italian: orifizio Italian: pertugio Italian: cavità Polish: wykop Polish: otwór Bulgarian: отво́р Danish: hul Dutch: lichaamsholte French: trou Galician: buraco Galician: burato German: Loch Greek: τρύπα Irish: poll Irish: oscailt Irish: cuas Irish: gola Latin: forāmen Latin: ōs Latin: hiātus Malayalam: ദ്വാരം Portuguese: buraco Portuguese: orifício Portuguese: forame Russian: отве́рстие Russian: очко́ Russian: лу́нка Slovene: luknja Spanish: orificio Ukrainian: ді́́рка Ukrainian: очко́
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