hole

[ hohl ]

/ hoʊl /

|||

noun

an opening through something; gap; aperture: a hole in the roof; a hole in my sock.

a hollow place in a solid body or mass; a cavity: a hole in the ground.

the excavated habitation of an animal; burrow.

a small, dingy, or shabby place: I couldn't live in a hole like that.

a place of solitary confinement; dungeon.

an embarrassing position or predicament: to find oneself in a hole.

a cove or small harbor.

a fault or flaw: They found serious holes in his reasoning.

a deep, still place in a stream: a swimming hole.

Sports.

a small cavity, into which a marble, ball, or the like is to be played.
a score made by so playing.

Golf.

the circular opening in a green into which the ball is to be played.
a part of a golf course from a tee to the hole corresponding to it, including fairway, rough, and hazards.
the number of strokes taken to hit the ball from a tee into the hole corresponding to it.

Informal. opening; slot: The radio program was scheduled for the p.m. hole. We need an experienced person to fill a hole in our accounting department.

Metalworking. (in wire drawing) one reduction of a section.

Electronics. a mobile vacancy in the electronic structure of a semiconductor that acts as a positive charge carrier and has equivalent mass.

Aeronautics. an air pocket that causes a plane or other aircraft to drop suddenly.

verb (used with object), holed, hol·ing.

to make a hole or holes in.

to put or drive into a hole.

Golf. to hit the ball into (a hole).

to bore (a tunnel, passage, etc.).

verb (used without object), holed, hol·ing.

to make a hole or holes.

Verb Phrases

hole out, Golf. to strike the ball into a hole: He holed out in five, one over par.

hole up,

to go into a hole; retire for the winter, as a hibernating animal.
to hide, as from pursuers, the police, etc.: The police think the bank robbers are holed up in Chicago.

Nearby words

holding tank, holdout, holdover, holdup, holdup man, hole, hole card, hole in one, hole in the heart, hole in the wall, hole of retina

Idioms

burn a hole in one's pocket, to urge one to spend money quickly: His inheritance was burning a hole in his pocket.

hole in the wall, a small or confining place, especially one that is dingy, shabby, or out-of-the-way: Their first shop was a real hole in the wall.

in a/the hole,

in debt; in straitened circumstances: After Christmas I am always in the hole for at least a month.
Baseball, Softball. pitching or batting with the count of balls or balls and strikes to one's disadvantage, especially batting with a count of two strikes and one ball or none.
Stud Poker. being the card or one of the cards dealt face down in the first round: a king in the hole.

make a hole in, to take a large part of: A large bill from the dentist made a hole in her savings.

pick a hole/holes in, to find a fault or flaw in: As soon as I presented my argument, he began to pick holes in it.Also poke a hole/holes in.

Origin of hole

before 900; Middle English; Old English hol hole, cave, orig. neuter of hol (adj.) hollow; cognate with German hohl hollow

SYNONYMS FOR hole

1, 2 pit, hollow, concavity. Hole, cavity, excavation refer to a hollow place in anything. Hole is the common word for this idea: a hole in turf. Cavity is a more formal or scientific term for a hollow within the body or in a substance, whether with or without a passage outward: a cavity in a tooth; the cranial cavity. An excavation is an extended hole made by digging out or removing material: an excavation before the construction of a building.

3 den, cave; lair, retreat.

4 hovel, shack.

Related forms

hole·less, adjectivehol·ey, adjective

Can be confused

hole whole (see synonym study at the current entry) (see synonym study at whole)holey holy wholly

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for holey

When Orlean recently tweeted the question, “Is it ‘holy moly’ or ‘holey moley’ or ‘holy moley’?”
Timothy Hutton: Literary Sex God|Sean Kennedy|January 19, 2010|DAILY BEAST
I hunted out the holey socks and then I turned my attention to the trunk.
Talbot's Angles|Amy E. Blanchard
He had not had a really satisfying meal since leaving Holey Lake.
South from Hudson Bay|E. C. [Ethel Claire] Brill
Don't get thinkin' of somethin' else and come down with one whole and one holey, same as you did last time.
Kent Knowles: Quahaug|Joseph C. Lincoln

British Dictionary definitions for holey (1 of 2)

holey

/ (ˈhəʊlɪ) /

adjective holeyer or holeyest

full of holes

British Dictionary definitions for holey (2 of 2)

hole

/ (həʊl) /

noun

an area hollowed out in a solid

an opening made in or through something

an animal's hiding place or burrow

informal an unattractive place, such as a town or a dwelling

informal a cell or dungeon

US informal a small anchorage

a fault (esp in the phrase pick holes in)

slang a difficult and embarrassing situation

the cavity in various games into which the ball must be thrust

(on a golf course)

the cup on each of the greens
each of the divisions of a course (usually 18) represented by the distance between the tee and a green
the score made in striking the ball from the tee into the hole

physics

a vacancy in a nearly full band of quantum states of electrons in a semiconductor or an insulator. Under the action of an electric field holes behave as carriers of positive charge
(as modifier)hole current
a vacancy in the nearly full continuum of quantum states of negative energy of fermions. A hole appears as the antiparticle of the fermion

in holes so worn as to be full of holeshis socks were in holes

in the hole mainly US

in debt
(of a card, the hole card, in stud poker) dealt face down in the first round

make a hole in to consume or use a great amount of (food, drink, money, etc)to make a hole in a bottle of brandy

verb

to make a hole or holes in (something)

(when intr, often foll by out) golf to hit (the ball) into the hole

Word Origin for hole

Old English hol; related to Gothic hulundi, German Höhle, Old Norse hylr pool, Latin caulis hollow stem; see hollow

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

Science definitions for holey

hole

[ hōl ]

A gap, usually the valence band of an insulator or semiconductor, that would normally be filled with one electron. If an electron accelerated by a voltage moves into a gap, it leaves a gap behind it, and in this way the hole itself appears to move through the substance. Even though holes are in fact the absence of a negatively charged particle (an electron), they can be treated theoretically as positively charged particles, whose motion gives rise to electric current.

Idioms and Phrases with holey

hole

In addition to the idioms beginning with hole

hole in one
hole in the wall
hole up

also see:

ace in the hole
black hole
in a bind (hole)
in the hole
money burns a hole in one's pocket
need like a hole in the head
pick holes in
square peg in a round hole