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Synonyms

hole in the wall

British  

noun

  1. another name for cash dispenser

  2. a small dingy place, esp one difficult to find

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
hole in the wall Idioms  

  1. A small, modest, or obscure place, as in My new apartment is just a hole in the wall, or Believe it or not, that little hole in the wall is a great restaurant. This graphic term is often used disparagingly. [First half of 1800s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Investigators later found a hole in the wall linking the two houses.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 23, 2025

Another popular café, which is operated by blind staff, serves coffee through a hole in the wall, from someone wearing a monkey suit arm, to customers waiting in the street.

From BBC • Jul. 30, 2024

If you kick a hole in the wall in my house, don't ask me how to fix it.

From Salon • Feb. 22, 2024

One tenant said after his neighbor died in 2019, maggots came through a hole in the wall.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 16, 2023

There was a broken section in the brickwork, as if a sledgehammer had knocked a hole in the wall.

From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.