pothole
[pot-hohl]
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Origin of pothole
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for pothole
Contemporary Examples
Keep in mind, the U.S. can barely keep its government open, fix a pothole, or move a train 45 miles in an hour in this country.
A gentleman named Lee Daly from Dublin, Ireland asked Booker for help with a pothole in front of his house.
March 17, 2005 – 7:21 p.m. Type: 911 Subject: Maintenance Report: Pothole “that is blocking the road” 4.
When Baker took office, it took 2½ years to fill a pothole in St. Petersburg.
Historical Examples
The carriage slumped into a pothole, and a spring seemed to snap.
When the Owl CriesPaul Bartlett
They were moving around the base of a small knoll when Larkwell's foot struck a pothole in the ash and he stumbled.
First on the MoonJeff Sutton
pothole
- geography
- a deep hole in limestone areas resulting from action by running waterSee also sinkhole (def. 1)
- a circular hole in the bed of a river produced by abrasion
- a deep hole, esp one produced in a road surface by wear or weathering
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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
Word Origin and History for pothole
n.
also pot-hole, 1826, originally a geological feature in glaciers and gravel beds, from Middle English pot "a deep hole for a mine, or from peat-digging" (late 14c.), now generally obsolete, but preserved in Scotland and northern England dialect; perhaps ultimately related to pot (n.1) on notion of "deep, cylindrical shape." Applied to a hole in a road from 1909.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper