keyhole

American  

[kee-hohl] / ˈkiˌhoʊl /

noun

1. a hole for inserting a key in a lock, especially one in the shape of a circle with a rectangle having a width smaller than the diameter of the circle projecting from the bottom.

2. Also called key.  Basketball. the area at each end of the court that is bounded by two lines extending from the end line parallel to and equidistant from the sidelines and terminating in a circle around the foul line.

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adjective

1. extremely private or intimate, especially with reference to information gained as if by peeping through a keyhole.

2. snooping and intrusive.

   a keyhole investigator.

keyhole British  

/ ˈkiːˌhəʊl /

noun

1. an aperture in a door or a lock case through which a key may be passed to engage the lock mechanism

2. any small aperture resembling a keyhole in shape or function

3. a transient column of vapour or plasma formed during the welding or cutting of materials, using high energy beams, such as lasers

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Etymology

Origin of keyhole

First recorded in 1585–95; key ¹ + hole

Example Sentences

Stoppard announced himself with “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” an absurdist lark that views “Hamlet” from the keyhole perspective of two courtiers jockeying for position in the new regime.

From Los Angeles Times

It will, according to Nick Card, involve "keyhole surgery" to open a small trench to investigate "this anomaly".

From BBC

The study focuses on patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy, the standard keyhole operation to remove the gallbladder.

From BBC

You can cover external keyholes and add a flap or brush to your letterbox, or hang a door curtain.

From BBC

For writers in the 1960s, middle-class infidelity offered a keyhole to deeper social themes—“the relation of individual to collective decadence,” the critic Wilfrid Sheed wrote of Updike’s fiction.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• break
• crack
• crater
• cut
• dent
• gap
• mouth
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• tunnel
• void
• window