pothole
Americannoun
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geography
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a deep hole in limestone areas resulting from action by running water See also sinkhole
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a circular hole in the bed of a river produced by abrasion
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a deep hole, esp one produced in a road surface by wear or weathering
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pothole
Explanation
A pothole is a hole or little pit in a road. Drivers complain about potholes frequently. If you've ever felt a little bump while in a car, you probably hit a pothole: a little hole in the street caused by wear and tear. Newly paved roads are smooth and have no potholes, but potholes develop over time. Drivers hate potholes because the little bump is startling, and a big pothole could actually damage a car. Eventually, potholes are usually filled in when a road gets paved. Potholes are also called chuckholes.
Vocabulary lists containing pothole
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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.
See Examples For:
“I think that we have to shift it away from ideological labeling to really concrete economic ideas — you know, they call her a pothole pragmatist, the DSA does. ... That’s what we need.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Mamdani appeared to echo them in April, when he made a media event of filling a pothole in Staten Island.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Cities and counties are scrambling to prepare for a potential overhaul of how they pay for all sorts of services, from policing to pothole repairs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
And then there’s the biggest pothole of all on the road to pastoral wonder:
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2026
One of them accelerates as it passes; a wheel dives into a water-filled pothole, spraying freezing muddy water over Salim’s pants and coat.
From "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman
At news conferences, she focuses on meat-and-potato issues such as the amount of time it takes the city to fix streetlights and potholes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026
Before May, he was a businessman who would drive around his home city of Wakefield wishing the potholes could be fixed.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
She also noted that the mayor has fixed more than 170,000 potholes, expanded universal child care, and balanced the budget amid a $12 billion deficit.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
When AFP visited, municipal workers were fixing a road that residents said had been riddled with potholes for years.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
But on my way to school, weaving around mud patches and potholes, I feel less certain.
From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau
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.
