Definition of "hole"

hole¹

/həʊl/

noun
plural holes
1. A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; a dent; a depression; a fissure.
  Quotations
  To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in't, are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully disaster the cheeks.
  c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene vii]
  Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill.
  1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […]
2. An opening that goes all the way through a solid body, a fabric, etc.; a perforation; a rent.
  Quotations
  The priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], 2 Kings 12:9
  […] her palfrey’s footfall shot Light horrors thro’ her pulses: the blind walls Were full of chinks and holes; and overhead Fantastic gables, crowding, stared: […]
  1840, Alfred Tennyson, Godiva
3. (heading) In games.
  1. (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.
  2. (golf) The part of a game in which a player attempts to hit the ball into one of the holes.
  3. (baseball) The rear portion of the defensive team between the shortstop and the third baseman.
  4. (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.
  5. (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.
  6. In the game of fives, part of the floor of the court between the step and the pepperbox.
4. (archaeology, slang) An excavation pit or trench.
5. (figuratively) A weakness; a flaw or ambiguity.
  Quotations
  But between the drinks and subtle things / The holes in my apologies, you know / I’m trying hard to take it back
  2011, Fun (lyrics and music), “We Are Young”
6. (informal) A container or receptacle.
7. (physics) In semiconductors, a lack of an electron in an occupied band behaving like a positively charged particle.
8. (computing) A security vulnerability in software which can be taken advantage of by an exploit.
9. (slang, anatomy) An orifice, in particular the anus. When used with shut it always refers to the mouth.
10. (Ireland, Scotland, particularly in the phrase "get one's hole") Sex, or a sex partner.
11. (informal, with "the") Solitary confinement, a high-security prison cell often used as punishment.
  Quotations
  In late December a Washington State prisoner was involved in a scuffle with a guard who was trying to take him into the hole.
  1988 April 2, Ed Mead, “AIDS hysteria sweeps prison guards' union”, in Gay Community News, page 9
  Disciplinary actions can range from a mere write up to serious time in the hole.
  2011, Ahmariah Jackson, IAtomic Seven, Locked Up but Not Locked Down
12. (slang) An undesirable place to live or visit.
  Quotations
  I have often heard people say, "One can't live upon a view," and I have heard some of the most beautiful places called "awful holes," simply because of the monotonous lives led in them.
  1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 109
13. (figurative) Difficulty, in particular, debt.
14. (graph theory) A chordless cycle in a graph.
15. (slang, rail transport) A passing loop; a siding provided for trains traveling in opposite directions on a single-track line to pass each other.
verb
third-person singular simple present holes, present participle holing, simple past and past participle holed
1. (transitive) To make holes in (an object or surface).
2. (transitive, by extension) To destroy.
3. (intransitive) To go into a hole.
  Quotations
  Good master Picklock, with your worming brain, And wriggling engine-head of maintenance, Which I shall see you hole with very shortly! A fine round head, when those two lugs are off, To trundle through a pillory!
  1631, Ben Jonson, The Staple of News, act IV, scene ii
4. (transitive) To drive into a hole, as an animal, or a billiard ball or golf ball.
  Quotations
  If the player holes the red ball, he scores three, and upon holing his adversary's ball, he gains two; and thus it frequently happens, that seven are got upon a single stroke, by caramboling and holing both balls.
  1799, Sporting Magazine, volume 13, page 49
5. (transitive) To cut, dig, or bore a hole or holes in.

hole²

/həʊl/

adjective
comparative holer or more hole, superlative holest or most hole
1. Obsolete spelling of whole.
  Quotations
  Such was the arrangement of the alphabet over the hole North.
  1843, Sir George Webbe Dasent (translator), A grammar of the Icelandic or Old Norse tongue (originally by Rasmus Christian Rask)
2. Misspelling of whole.

Definition of "hole"

hole1

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

verb

Quotations

Quotations

hole2

adjective

Quotations

hole¹

hole²